Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of Cinchona calisaya bark on Staphylococcus by agar well diffusion method

Infectious diseases account for high proportion of health problems in the developing countries like India. Microorganism has developed resistance to many antibiotics and this has created immense clinical problem in the treatment of infectious diseases. The resistance of the organism increased due to the indiscriminate use of commercial antimicrobial drugs commonly used for the treatment of infectious diseases. This situation forced the scientist to search for new antimicrobial substances from various sources including medicinal many of the plants used today were known to the people of ancient culture throughout the world for their preservatived medicinal powers. However several plants are used in India in the form of crude extracts, infusions or plaster to treat common infections without scientific evidence of efficacy. Cinchona consist of commercially valuable bark obtained from various species, races and hybrid of cinchona, family rubiaceae. It is dried bark of the cultivated trees of Cinchona calisaya Wedd. Extracts of C. Calisaya bark have been reported to possess anti-malarial and anti-parasitic activities. In this context, the objective of this study was to show the antimicrobial activity of Cinchona bark on Staphylococcus by agar well diffusion method.

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