The potential of leaf extract from clinacanthus nutans as antibacterial agents

Antibacterial resistance has becoming one of the major problems facing by medical and pharmaceutical industry nowadays. There are more than 3,00 species of plants in Malaysia that possesses medicinal value due to presence of bioactive compound which can act as antibacterial agents. Therefore, aims of this study were to investigate the antibacterial potential of different extracts of C. nutans leaf on the selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria using disc diffusion assay as well as preliminary screen the group of organic compound present in the leaf extract. Preparation of the sample has been done by collecting leaves sample and extracted with five different solvents (hexane, chloroform, acetone, ethyl acetate and methanol). Disc diffusion susceptibility test was used for antibacterial activity determination using Gram-positive bacteria (B. cereus, MRSA, S. aureus and B. subtilis) and Gram-negative bacteria (Y. Enterocolitica, K. pheumoniae and E. coli). The preliminary screening of the presence of organic compound in the plant extracts was conducted using thin layer chromatography. The result from disc diffusion susceptibility test showed ethyl acetate extract demonstrated the most prominent antibacterial activity where it can inhibit five out of seven tests. B. cereus and K. pneumoniae were the most susceptible to the C. nutans extracts as it exhibited 80% of antibacterial activities from five different extract. Gram-positive bacteria were more susceptible to the extracts compared to Gram-negative bacteria. There were three bioactive compounds detected in each of the extracts where hexane showed the least diverse of compound as compared to the other extracts. C. nutans extracts were shown to have potential antibacterial activity against a variety of bacteria in this study.