Antibacterial activity of Ixora coccinea against selected bacterial pathogens isolated from clinical samples

Abstract

The present work aimed at exploring the antimicrobial activities of flower and leaf extracts of Ixora coccinea, belonging to the Rubiaceae family against clinical samples from tertiary health care hospital patients. In this study aqueous, methanolic and ethanolic extracts of both flower and leaf were screened. Antibacterial activity was screened against these samples and also against reference strains by means of agar-well diffusion method. The ethanolic and methanolic extracts of both flowers and leaves of I. coccinea showed promising antibacterial activity against both the clinical and reference Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The phytochemical screening of the organic plant extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids and tannins.