Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of medicinal orchid malaxis rheedei sw. against some selected pathogens

The antimicrobial activity of whole plant extracts of Malaxis rheedei Sw was evaluated in vitro, using disc diffusion method. Four different extracts were used which included chloroform, methanol, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether. Five species of bacterial strains namely Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae and fungus strains Aspergillus flavus, Trichophyton rubrum, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Cryptococcus neoformans were used for the present study. In the case of bacteria the Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most susceptible bacteria and it showed very least activity. In case of fungus Candida tropicalis and Candida albicans exhibit very least activity. But other microbes showed good activity. Therefore the petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol extract of the whole plant part of M.rheedei was more potential against these microbes.