African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (18), pp. 2091-2092, 19 September 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Short Communication

Antimicrobial activity of Mucuna pruriens on selected bacteria

Salau, A. O.* and Odeleye, O. M.

¹Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

²Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: dtwoabiola@yahoo.com. Tel: +2348034725754.

Accepted 20 February, 2007

The investigation is aimed to carry out the antimicrobial activities of the methanol extract of Mucuna pruriens leaves. The antimicrobial activity of the extract was determined by the agar well diffusion method against various gram positive, gram negative and spore forming microorganisms and fungi. The methanol extract of M. pruriens showed broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against all the tested microorganisms except Candida albicans. The results obtained in the study shows that M. pruriens extract can be a potential source of natural antimicrobial agent.

Key words: Agar diffusion, antimicrobial activity, Mucuna pruriens.