Antifungal activity of methanolic fractions of Alstonia scholaris against clinical isolates of Candida and other Yeast species

Abstract

Secondary metabolites are produced by many plants which are useful to human beings. These metabolites have been known for ages and served as potent antimicrobial agents. Alstonia scholaris(AS) is one of the most important plants which in our experiments has demonstrated a promising anti microbial activity. The present study aims at evaluating the anti fungal potential of this plant. Methanol extracts of leaf and bark were used for investigating anti fungal activity against different strains of Candida species isolated from clinical specimens. The result of the present study showed that most of the Candida sps were sensitive to the butanol and ethyl acetate (EA) fractions while hexane and chloroform showed no activity against the tested strains. However the largest zone of inhibition measured 16 mm for butanol fractions of Alstonia scholaris bark against Candida krusei. The SDA agar incorporated with the methanol fraction of leaf and bark extract showed complementary result in case of butanol fraction with 100 percent inhibition and almost little inhibition in ethyl acetate fraction. Unlike other fractions, the aqueous fraction showed zero inhibition in both well diffusion method as well as agar dilution method.