Tree communities and floristic composition of freshwater swamp forest remnants in Perak

Much areas of freshwater swamp forest in Malaysia have been developed into urban settlement leaving small fragments of isolated habitat. This study was conducted to determine the plant communities and floristic composition of freshwater swamp forest in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Sri Iskandar, Perak. A total of 17 plots measuring at 20 m × 20 m (0.68) ha were established in the study area. A total of 575 trees with diameter breast height (dbh) > 5 cm were enumerated, which gives tree density estimates of 845 trees ha-1. Floristic composition of tree communities at the study area comprises of 165 species, 88 genera and 36 families. Olacaceae is the most specious family, whereas the most dominant species is Nephelium costatum Hiern with an Importance Value Index (IVi) of 17.75%. Total tree basal area (BA) was 22.14 m2 ha-1. The Shannon- Weiner diversity index (H’) for the study is 1.15 (H’max = 6.35). Findings from this study may contribute in identifying species of special concerns results from freshwater swamps forest habitat fragmentation

Antimicrobial Activity of Plant Extracts against Bacillus Subtilis, Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia Coli

Abstract: Local herbs have many potential that may be active with antimicrobial activity. A screening was conducted with 11 species of herbs collected in UiTM Pahang Forest Reserve. Epipremnum sp., Zingiber sp. Tetracera indica, Tectaria crenata, Piper stylosum, Homalomena propinque, Goniothalamus sp., Elephantopus scaber, Mapania patiolale, Melastoma sp., Stemona tuberosa, Phullagathis rotundifolia, Thotea grandifolia and Smilax sp. were extracted with methanol to obtain their crude. The agar diffusion method using blank disc of 6 mm diameter were loaded with 1000 μg/mL of methanol crude and applied to the inoculate plate was used to assess the antimicrobial activity against two gram positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aeureus) and one gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). The results evaluated as the diameter of the inhibition zone of microbial growth, showed that all the extracts were active against gram-positive bacteria and gramnegative bacteria. The extract of Stemona tuberosa was found to be the most active against the E. coli and S. aeureus while Piper stylosum active against B. subtilis

Premilinary Studies on Phytochemical Screening of Ulam and Fruit from Malaysia

Alkaloids, saponins, steroid, terpenoid, flavonoids, phenolic distribution in 14 Malaysian favourite ulam and fruit belonging to different families were assessed and compared. The plants investigated were parkia speciosa (petai), solanum torvum (terung pipit), pithecellobium bubalinum (kerdas), moringa oleifera (kacang kelor), dryobalanops oblongifolia (keladan), cosmos caudatus (ulam raja), mentha arvensis (pudina), ocimum sp. (selasih), cymbopogon nardus (serai wangi), eugenia polyantha (serai kayu), Barringtonia scortechinii, (Putat), musa sp. (pisang), talinum paniculatum (akar som) and phyllanthus acidus (cermai). Moringa oleifera leaf and dryobalanops oblongifolia fruit were found contain positive reactions of alkaloids. All the samples studied also show high content of saponin except in bark and seed of parkia speciosa and stem of phyllanthus acidus. Meanwhile, results of the phytochemical screening on saponins, steroids, terpenoids, phenolic and flavonoids showed that cosmos caudatus, ocimum sp., mentha arvensis, barringtonia scortechinii and moringa oleifera were the active compounds present in the leaves of the plant

Premilinary Studies on Phytochemical Screening of Ulam and Fruit from Malaysia

Alkaloids, saponins, steroid, terpenoid, flavonoids, phenolic distribution in 14 Malaysian favourite ulam and fruit belonging to different families were assessed and compared. The plants investigated were parkia speciosa (petai), solanum torvum (terung pipit), pithecellobium bubalinum (kerdas), moringa oleifera (kacang kelor), dryobalanops oblongifolia (keladan), cosmos caudatus (ulam raja), mentha arvensis (pudina), ocimum sp. (selasih), cymbopogon nardus (serai wangi), eugenia polyantha (serai kayu), Barringtonia scortechinii, (Putat), musa sp. (pisang), talinum paniculatum (akar som) and phyllanthus acidus (cermai). Moringa oleifera leaf and dryobalanops oblongifolia fruit were found contain positive reactions of alkaloids. All the samples studied also show high content of saponin except in bark and seed of parkia speciosa and stem of phyllanthus acidus. Meanwhile, results of the phytochemical screening on saponins, steroids, terpenoids, phenolic and flavonoids showed that cosmos caudatus, ocimum sp., mentha arvensis, barringtonia scortechinii and moringa oleifera were the active compounds present in the leaves of the plant