Biological screening of indigenous knowledge based plants used in diarrhealtreatment

A survey was conducted in kohat district of khyber pakhtoonkhwa of pakistan to document the plants which are used to treat diarrhea. based on the survey,11 medicinal plants were selected (acacia nilotica,artemisia absinthim,carumcopticum,cinnamomumzeylanicum,curcuma longa,fumariaindica,menthalongifolia,phyllanthsemblica,punicagranatum,withaniasomnifera,woodfordiafruticosa). their antibacterial activity against 7 pathogenic bacterial strains (escherichia coli,staphylococcus aureus,shigellasonnei,klebsiellapneumoniae,salmonella enteritidis,yersinia enterocolitica,listeria monocytogenes) causing diarrhea was checked. forty four crude extracts at concentration of 50 mg/ml were used for in vitro antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method. all of the crude extracts were found to inhibit one or the other bacterial strain examined. minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) was determined against susceptible bacterial strains. the (mic) of the extracts against all tested bacterial strains ranged from 3.12 to 25 mg/ml. minimum bactericidal concentration (mbc) was then determined for extracts with positive results for mic that ranged between 6.25 to 50 mg/ml. woodfordiafruticosa,punicagranatumand carumcopticum were found to be potential candidates for development of drugs for diarrhea.