Effect of crude extract of Acalypha hispida and A. indica leaves on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in vitro

Abstract

Abstract. Kartika RPT, Purwoko T, Sunarto. 2018. Effect of crude extract of Acalypha hispida and A. indica leaves on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in vitro. Biofarmasi J Nat Prod Biochem 16: 29-35. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the bacteria causing infectious diseases. One alternative to dealing with the infectious diseases caused by S. aureus is using natural plant materials, often called traditional medicine. Ekor kucing (Acalypha hispida Brum.f.) and anting-anting (Acalypha indica L.) plants are typical herbs producing useful chemical substances in medicine, such as saponin, tannin, flavonoid, acalyphin, and volatile oil functioning as an antibacterial agent, among others. The aims of this research are to (i) to examine the inhibitory potential of crude extracts of A. hispida, and A. indica leaves against the growth of S. aureus bacteria, and (ii) to find out the comparison of potential bacterial inhibitory activity between crude extracts of A. hispida and A. indica leaves. The bacterial inhibition potential testing was conducted using Poisoned Food Techniques (PFT) method. Crude extracting with 70% ethanol solvent was done on A. hispida and A. indica leaf and the extract was dissolved serially using aquadest solvent to obtain the various extract concentrations: 0,5%, 0.4%, 0.3%, 0.2%, 0.1% and 0% (control). Then, the colony width was measured using the gravimetry method. The Completely Random Design was used to analyze the data result of this experiment. The crude extract of A. hispida and A. indica leaves at all concentrations can inhibit the S. aureus bacteria growth. The crude extract of A. hispida is more able to pursue the bacterium of S. aureus than the crude extract of A. indica.