Abstract

Medicinal plants have very high potential as antimicrobial drugs for treating various human diseases. The purpose of present work is to study the antimicrobial activity present in ethanolic extract obtained from stem bark of Knema attenuata. Microorganisms used for test were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of extract were studied using agar well diffusion and disc diffusion techniques. The zone of inhibition of growth was measured and recorded. The results obtained indicated the presence of mild antibacterial but moderate antifungal activity in the stem bark extract. Therefore the stem bark of K.attenuata can act as a natural antifungal agent.