Screening of Antifungal Activity of Premna cordifolia leaves extract

Premna cordifolia (Roxb.) is a Malaysian traditional vegetable from genus Premna of the family Lamiaceae. It is known as 'bebuas' or 'daun singkil' in Malay. The aims of this study are to extract the, P. cordifolia leaves with methanol and dichloromethane extractions by using maceration technique and to screen the antifungal activity of different solvents of leaf extracts at various concentrations against Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Fusarium solani. The leaf extracts were diluted into different concentration ( I 00 mg/mL, 50 mg/mL and 25 mg/mL) in 5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The different concentration of different leaf extracts solvent were spread onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) plates respectively using poisoned food technique so that the growth of the fungi can be screened. The result shows that 50 mg/mL of methanol extract shows the highest inhibition percentage (68.38%) against F. solani, followed by 50 mg/mL and 25 mg/mL of methanol extract against A. flavus with 64.71% and 61.76%, respectively. The methanol extracts of P. cordifolia leaves have greater inhibition effect against A. flavus, A. niger and F. solani compared to dichloromethane extracts. The methanol extracts with 50 mg/mL and 25 mg/mL displayed the highest inhibition effect. Dichloromethane extracts with concentration of 100 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml show moderate inhibition effect against the tested fungi. This study shows that P. cordifolia leaves does not only functioned as medicinal herbs whilst it is also effective against fungi inhibitory activity. The antifungal compounds extracted from the leaves displayed its potential in inhibiting the tested fungi from growing may lead to the development of alternative treatment for fungi infection