Physicochemical and Antibacterial Activity of Soap Enriched with Harumanis Pruned Leaves Extract

Abstract

The aim of this study was to formulate antibacterial soap from Harumanis pruned leaves extract. The antibacterial properties of Harumanis leaves extract were tested using disc diffusion test against five bacteria i.e. Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus licheniformis. Methanol, ethanol and distilled water were used to extract the Harumanis pruned leaves. Ethanol is the best solvent to extract antimicrobial properties in Harumanis pruned leaves as it shows the largest inhibition zone, whereas, water is the weakest solvent to extract antimicrobial properties in Harumanis pruned as it shows minimum inhibition zone for all the microbes used. The best extract of Harumanis pruned leaves (i.e. ethanol extract) was used in the formulation of the antibacterial soap. The result shows that formulated soap with Harumanis pruned extract have the ability to inhibit all the five microbes tested and therefore, it has the potential to be commercialized as antibacterial soap in the near future.