Antibacterial activity of antipsoriatic herb: Cassia tora, Momordica charantia and Calendula officinalis

In view of increasing resistance to existing antimicrobial agents, herbal drugs are being looked as very importance sourcefor discovery of new agents for treating various ailments related to bacterial infections. Cassia tora, Calendula officinalis andMomordica charantia are well known plants in Asia including India which posses wide range of pharmacological activities. Thesedrugs have been used in India as folk remedy in the form of decoctions and infusions to treat bacterial infections and also claimed tobe an effective against variety of skin conditions like psoriasis, acne, wounds etc. The present investigation was carried out to studythe unexplored area of these drugs towards their antibacterial activity with respect to their traditional use as antipsoriatic agents. Theherbs were subjected to successive extraction using different solvents and the extracts were subjected to antibacterial evaluationagainst both gram positive and gram negative organisms by cup plate technique. Among the various extracts, aqueous extracts werefound to be more effective against all the bacteria. Staphyllococcus aureus was more susceptible to the aqueous extracts among thetested organisms.