Screening Methods in the Study of Fungicidal Property of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

The scientific communities have received attention on wide range of publication on various techniques with special reference to antimicrobial activity. Much attention has been drawn to the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts in crude form and their metabolites due to the challenge of growing incidences of drug-resistant pathogens. Profuse use of commercial antibiotics, synthetic pesticides develop multiple drug resistance among pathogens. Even some plants have shown the ability to overcome resistance in certain organisms and this has led to researchers‟ investigating their mechanisms of action and isolating active compounds. Particular focus is on establishing the effect of the plant extracts in terms of their microstatic and microcidal action and the spectrum of organisms affected. This has enabled exploitation of plants for the treatment of microbial infections and in the development of new antimicrobial compounds. However by simple isolating and characterizing phytochemicals without bioactive properties is worthless. To achieve applied meaning and significance, extracts must be screened for biological activity with antimicrobial and other bioassay. This paper reviews the current methods used in the investigations of the efficacy of plants as antimicrobial agents and points out some of the differences in techniques employed by different authors.