| Summary: | Background: Cellulitis is a common skin disease encountered in medical emergencies in hospitals. It can be treated
using a combination of antibiotics therapy; however, the causative agent Staphylococcus aureus has been reported
to develop resistance towards the currently used antibiotics. Therefore, the search for more alternative herbal origin
antimicrobial agents is critical. Aim: In this study, maceration and Soxhlet extraction of the whole plant of Cassia alata
Linn. (leaves, roots, and stem) were performed using four solvents with diferent polarities, namely n-hexane, ethyl
acetate, ethanol and distilled water. The crude extracts were screened using agar well difusion, colorimetric broth
microdilution, grid culture and bacterial growth curve analysis against Staphylococcus aureus. The phytochemicals in
the crude extracts were identifed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS).
Results: Agar-well difusion analysis revealed that extraction using ethyl acetate showed the largest inhibition
zone with an average diameter of 15.30 mm (root Soxhlet extract) followed by 14.70 mm (leaf Soxhlet extract) and
13.70 mm (root maceration extract). The lowest minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentration in
root Soxhlet extract using ethyl acetate was 0.313 and 0.625 µg µL−1
, respectively. Our study proved that crude
extract of the plant suppressed the growth of S. aureus as evidenced from a signifcant regression extension (p<0.06,
p=0.00003) of lag phase for 6 h after the treatment with increased concentration. Based on the GC–MS analysis, 88
phytochemicals consist of fatty acids, esters, alkanes, phenols, fatty alcohols, sesquiterpenoids and macrocycle that
possibly contributed to the antimicrobial properties were identifed, 32 of which were previously characterized for
their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-infammatory activities.
Conclusion: Ethyl acetate crude extract was better than the other investigated solvents. The root and stem of C. alata
showed signifcant antimicrobial efcacy against S. aureus in this study. The remaining 56 out of 88 phytochemicals of
the plant should be intensively studied for more medicinal uses.
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