Infectious disease are the world’s leading cause of premature deaths, killing almost 50 000 people every day.
Morbidity and mortality due to diarrhea continues to be a major problem in many developing countries, specially
amongst children. Infections due to variety of bacterial etiologic agents such as pathogenic Escherichia coli,
Salmonela spp., Staphylococcus aureus are most common. In recent years drug resistance to human pathogenic
bacteria has been commonly reported from all over the world [1][2][3].
With the continuous use of antibiotics microorganism have become resistant. I addition to this problem, antibiotics
are sometimes associated with adverse effects on host which include hypersensitivity, immunosuppressant and
allergic reactions[4].This has created immense clinical problems in the treatment of infectious diseases[5].
Therefore, there is a need to develop alternative antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases; one
approach is to screen local medicinal plants for possible antimicrobial properties. Plant materials remain an
important recourse to combat serious diseases in the world. According to WHO (1993), 80% of the world’s
population is dependent on the traditional medicine and a major part of the traditional therapies involves the use of
plant extracts or their active constituents. Yet a scientific study of plants to determine their antimicrobial active
compounds is a comparatively new field.
The traditional medicinal methods, specially the use of medicinal plants, still play a vital role to cover the basic
health needs in the developing countries.