A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIFFERENT HERBAL OINTMENT FOR ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY

The aim of this work was to formulate four different herbal ointments with ethanolic extract of Achyranthes aspera linn, Cymbopogon citaratus, Euphorbia hirta, Thyme vulgaris; (ii) investigate the in vitro antimicrobial activity of the formulated herbs using disc diffusion method. The antibacterial screening was done against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Aspergillus niger using sterile distilled water. Further, the physiochemical properties like colour, pH, spreadability, washability, skin irritancy, solubility, diffusion study loss of drying, and stability study were evaluated. The results showed that the ethanol extract of herbs possess activity even at low concentration and also shows maximum zone of inhibition comparable to the standard, ciprofloxacin (anti-bacterial), clotrimazole (antifungal). The solubilities and stability studies were good for all herbs.

KEYWORDS: Acyranthes aspera linn, Cymobopogon citaratus, Euphorbia hirta linn, Thyme vulgaris, Antimicrobial activity, herbal ointment, ethanolic extract,