VOLUME 69 : 2021

Plants from the genus Callicarpa have been reported for their ethnomedicinal uses such as treatment for skin diseases, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic. The ability of some Callicarpa species to heal skin diseases indicates the possibility of these species to have an antimicrobial property. The leaves of Callicarpa candicans were used in traditional medicine for wound healing and for treatment of tuberculosis. This study aims to evaluate the antibacterial activity and antitubercular activity of the leaf extracts (hexane, dichloromethane and methanol) of C. candicans. The antibacterial activity of C. candicans extracts was tested through disk diffusion assay using S. aureus, B. subtilis, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa as the test organisms. The antitubercular activity was determined through Microplate Alamar Blue Assay (MABA) Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) on Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. The results of the disk diffusion assay showed that the hexane and DCM crude extracts and their fractions have antibacterial activity against gram positive S. aureus and B. subtilis, but not gram negative E. coli and P. aeruginosa. The same crude extracts and fractions from hexane and DCM showed high antituberculosis activity based on their MIC. The antibacterial and antitubercular constituents present in C. candicans have a semipolar nature since the active fractions were obtained from the semipolar DCM extract as well as the least nonpolar fractions of the hexane extract. Investigation on the active constituents from these fractions is in progress.