Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Volume: 10; Number 2; Year 2015 Cite this article as: Khan A, Khan RA, Khalil T. Antimicrobial activities of Calligonum polygonoides, Albezia lebeck and Piper nigrum. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2015; 10: 416. Antimicrobial activities of Calligonum polygonoides, Albezia lebeck and Piper nigrum Sir, Medicinal plants play crucial role in prevention of chronic diseases and improving human health. Natural products obtained from medicinal plants play important role as a source of antibiotic and anticancer drugs. According to Cragg et al., (1997), 78% drugs are prepared from medicinal plants and their derived natural bioactive constituents. These evidences provide us a platform to screen various medicinal plants for their bioactive natural products and active metabolites (Suffredini et al., 2004). Present study is aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of Calligonum polygonoides, Albezia lebeck and Piper nigrum (black pepper). Two hundred gram of powder from each of the samples were taken and placed in the 70% commercial grade methanol and stirred well, then after passing of 72 hours the extracts were filtered by using qualitative Whatman filter paper. In wise bath the filtrate was placed at 40°C and thus the entire methanol was evaporated, so the crude extract of the plants were obtained and stored in the refrigerator at 4°C for the purpose of future in vitro studies. Various concentrations of the crude extracts, ranging from 30, 15, 7.5, 3.75, 1.875 and 0.86 mg/mL were prepared in distilled water. The antibacterial potency of various fractions of C. polygonoides methanol extracts were carried out through protocol of Bagamboula et al., (2003) against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The antifungal activity of the plant extracts Albezia lebeck and P. nigrum were screened through the agar tube dilution method by using the protocol of Duraipandiyan and Ignacimuthu (2009). Growth of the Gram-positive bacteria S. aureus as well as Gram-negative bacteria E. coli was markedly inhibi- ted by C. polygonoides (Table I). Inhibitory activities against S. aureus and E. coli were recorded in all concen- trations of C. polygonoides The A. lebeck and P. nigrum extracts showed activity against Aspergillus niger followed by A. flavis while the highest activity was shown by A. lebeck against A. niger by 50% and by P. nigrum against A. flavis 45% (Table II). Similarly the terbinafine, a positive control was indicated highly active against this fungal strains, while the DMSO (negative control) indicate zero percent inhibition activity against all the used fungal strains. Arif Khan, Rahmat Ali Khan and Tanzila Khalil Department of Biotechnology, University of Science and Technology, Bannu 28100, Pakistan. Corresponding author: Rahmatgul_81@yahoo.com References Bagamboula CF, Uyttendaele M, Debevere J. Antimicrobial effect of spices and herbs on Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri. J Food Prot. 2003; 66: 668–73. Cragg GM, Newman DJ, Snader KM. Natural products in drug discovery and development. J Nat Prod. 1997; 60: 52-60. Duraipandiyan V, Ignacimuthu S. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of flindersine isolated from the traditional medicinal plant, Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam. J Ethanopharmacol. 2009; 123: 494-98. Suffredini IB, Sader HS, Gonçalves AG, Reis AO, Gales AC, Varella AD, Younes RN. Screening of antibacterial active extracts obtained from plants native to Brazilian Amazon rain forest and Atlantic forest. Brazilian J Med Biol Res. 2004; 37: 379-84. A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2015; 10: 416 Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info Abstracted/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v10i2.23192 Letter to the Editor Table I: Antibacterial of Calligonum polygonoides Inhibition of growth (mm) Concentration (mg/mL) E. coli S. aureus 30 15.2 ± 1.5 16.5 ± 0.5 15 13.5 ± 1.2 13.5 ± 0.4 7.5 12.4 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 0.5 3.75 9.4 ± 0.5 9.4 ± 0.6 1.875 - - 0.86 - - Data are mean ± SD Table II: Antifungal activity of Albezia lebeck and Piper nigrum extract (% inhibition) Strain Terbinafine Albezia lebeck Piper nigrum Aspergillus niger 99.4 ± 5.5 50.0 ± 0.0 45.0 ± 0.0 Aspergillus flavius 98.1 ± 3.7 45.0 ± 0.0 40.0 ± 0.0 Data are mean ± SD mailto:mrkhanqau@yahoo.com