ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF LEMON GRASS EXTRACT

The correlation between the chemical composition and the antibacterial activity of essential oils of some aromatic medicinal plants growing in the Democratic Republic of Congo was revealed by a study conducted by Cimanga, K., Kambu, K., Tona, L., Aspers, S., De Bruyene, T., Hermans, N., Totte, J., Pieters, L. and Vlietinck, A.J. in 2002 at questia.com The antimicrobial activity of plant extract from lemon grass was then studied. Using selected microorganisms: I Gram-positive bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, ATCC 29213; b. Streptococcus pyogenes, Group A; c. Streptococcus agalactiae, Group B, ATCC 12386; d. Enterococcus faecalis, ATCC 29212; e. Listeria monocytogenes; and II Gram Negative Bacteria: f. Escherichia coli, ATCC 35218; g. Shigella sonnei, ATCC 25931; h. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ATCC 27853; i. Proteus mirabilis; and j. Serratia marcescens, an in-vitro experiment was performed to determine the size of zone of inhibition, the concentration that inhibits growth, and the time at which the microorganisms were killed. Subsequently, the susceptibility of the active ingredients of lemon grass extracts at different concentrations was compared with selected antibiotics using the same strains of microorganisms, and the chemical constituents of the plant extract yielding the active ingredients were identified using paper chromatography. The experimental method of research yielded primary data, but, more trials were needed to be done to confirm the results.