1 Plant Archives Vol. 20, Supplement 2, 2020 pp. 2487-2494 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 EFFICACY OF ANTI-BACTERIAL ACTION ON SEVEN MEDICINAL PLANTS EXTRACT AGAINST NEONATAL SEPSIS CAUSING BACTERIA-AN IN VITRO STUDY Bijay Raj Pandit and Ashish Vyas* Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab-144411, India Abstract The use of plant parts and their yield as therapeutic purpose was found from the starting evolution of human being. Medicinal plants, according to World Health Organization, are the finest resource to get a wide range of newer herbal drugs. During the last few decades, the demand of plant originated remedy has been growing rapid all around the humankind. The study was done to screen antibacterial properties of aqueous extract of seven Nepalese medicinal plants against eight isolated blood pathogens which be able to further used to develop new herbal medicines with having antimicrobial properties higher. Azadiracta indica (Leaf) (Dohroo, A. et al., 2016), Tinospora cordifolia (Leaf), Punica granatum (Rind), Syzygium cumini (leaf), Moringa oleifera (Leaf), Nyctanthes arbortristis (Leaf), and Swertia chirata (Whole plant) were used in this study. Extract of plants were evaluated against eight isolated pathogens for antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method. The strongest antibacterial activity was found with Syzygium cumini leaf extract against S. aureus (30mm), Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (20mm) and Streptococcus spp. (20mm) whereas Punica granatum rind extract showed strongest antibacterial activity for CONS(20mm), Streptococcus spp.(20mm), E. coli(16mm) and Enterobacter spp.(22mm). T. cordifolia, N. arbortristis, M. oleifera leaf extract revealed antibacterial activity, strongest against P. aeruginosa (20mm) only. No any plant extracts exposed antibacterial activity for Proteus spp. A. indica and S. chirata extract was ineffective against the tested isolates. Significant antibacterial activity was observed with aqueous extract of P. granatum and S. cumini against both gram positive and negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) isolate contributing broad-spectrum activity. Keywords: Medicinal Plants, Antibacterial, Aqueous, Neonatal sepsis Introduction The utilization of plant parts and their yield as herbal medicines was found from starting evolution of human being. “Rig-Veda”, thought to be the oldest depository of knowledge for human being in medicinal uses of plants which has been written between 4500-1600 B.C. (Rastogi and Mehrotra, 2002). Medicinal plants, according to World Health Organization, are the finest resource to obtain a wide range of newer herbal drugs Chhikara et al., 2018) During the last few decades, the demand of plant originated remedy has been growing rapid all around the globe (Sathiyaraj et al., 2010; Kaur et al., 2016; Singh and Quraishi, 2015; Hantsu et al., 2017). Phytochemical compounds contain in medicinal plants give specific physiological activities on the body of human being due to the presence of bioactive compounds (secondary metabolites) like alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, quinines, tannins, coumarins, terpenoids, steroids (Khurana and Gajbhiye, 2013; Panghal et al., 2019; Edoga et al., 2005; Priya and Singh 2012; Verma et al., 2015). The concentrations of bioactive compounds may vary with different plants and its parts which result in distinctive medicinal properties of particular plant and their parts (Kaur et al., 2014; Richard et al., 2013; Arora et al., 2013; Kaur & Shantanu, 2015). Pandey & Kaur, 2018). Medical uses of different medicinal plant range from the administration of the root, barks, stems, leaves, flower, seeds or whole plant to the utilize of extract and decoction from the plant parts (Ogbulie et al., 2007; Kaur et al., 2016 and Kumar et al., 2017). Growing antibiotic resistance to microorganism has created interest globally among researchers for evaluation of different medicinal plants for its antibacterial activities to overcome this problem. Drug resistance in pathogenic microorganisms is supposed to be emerged due to unsystematic use of commercially synthesized drugs having antibacterial property. Various properties of medicinal plants make interest worldwide study that has increased during the last few decades rapidly due to properties for antibacterial and antioxidant activities, low toxic effect and the cheaper alternative to expensive commercial drugs (Chew et al., 2012; Priadarshini et al., 2013). Due to the antimicrobial resistance it is challenge for protection and cure of an rapidly coming out of infections caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi (Farjana et al., 2014). The leading causes of death with infectious disease by emerging multi resistant pathogens worldwide accountable for 68% of all deaths in 2012 (Kher and Chaurasia, 1997; who, 2000). Therefore, it is highly imperative to screen antimicrobial properties of different medicinal plants which can be further used to make new drug with more effective having antimicrobial potential (Jassal and Thambyrajah, 2018). This study was done to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy in familiar medicinal plants Azadiracta indica, Tinospora cordifolia, Punica granatum, Syzygium cumini, Moringa oleifera, Nyctanthes arbortristis, and Swertia chirata. Materials and Methods Bacterial cultures In the current study Bacterial cultures were used of clinical isolates from the cases of neonatal sepsis, collected from National Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Birgunj, Nepal. The bacterial isolate contain of five Gram negative bacterial isolates namely Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp., Proteus spp. and three Gram positive bacterial isolates namely Staphylococcus aureus, Coagulase negative Staphylococci (CONS) and Streptococcus spp..