Abstract The plant Capparis decidua L. belongs to family Capparidaceae and its stem and fruit were extracted successively with four organic solvents viz. petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol, and distil water. These crude extracts were assessed for antibacterial activity against two gram positive bacteria i.e. Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilus and two gram negative bacteria i.e. Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using disc diffusion method. The antibacterial activity of the crude ethanolic extract of stem of selected plant was more active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (21.33± 0.058) and showed less antibacterial activity against E. coli (4.67 ± 0.058). The chloroform extract of stem showed good antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (14.33 ± 0.115) but represented less activity against E. coli (2.33 ± 0.058mm) The petroleum ether extract of stem of Capparis decidua showed antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (8.67 ± 0.058) and show very less activity against E. coli (1.33 ± 0.058). The distill water extract of stem of Capparis decidua showed maximum antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (13.33 ± 0.058) and showed less activity against E. coli (8.67 ± 0.058). The Chloroform extract of fruit showed good activity against P. aeruginosa (12.69 ± 0.112mm) and minimum activity against E. coli that were (3.60 ± 0.058mm), The ethanolic extract of fruit of Capparis decidua showed good antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (19.33 ± 0.058) and show less antibacterial activity against E. coli (2.67 ± 0.058). The chloroform and ethanolic extracts showed the significant zones of inhibition for all microorganisms. This set of experiment was conducted to compare the antibacterial activity of stem and fruit of Capparis decidua. Anatomical studies were conducted to observe the variation in the cells size of stem of Capparis decidua taken from different localities of District Bhimber. There was variation in the size of cells of pith, xylem, phloem, and epidermis of the stem of Capparis decidua taken from the different areas of District Bhimber. The size of epidermal cells of stem (1089.54 ± 0.83) was higher that was taken from Kaschanater and size of epidermal cell wasminimum (793.72 ± 0.94) that was taken from Chata. The size of cortex cell wasmaximum (1690.33 ± 0.54) that was taken from Bhimber and wasminimum (1090.32 ± 0.73) that was taken from Chata. It proves that this, medicinal plant is medicinally very important and further research may be conducted to explore its comprehensive pharmaceutical analysis.
Keywords Antibacterial activity; Bhimber; Capparis decidua; Anatomy; Zone of Inhibition.