Background:Medicinal plants are an important source of novel antimicrobial agents. Ayurvedic treatment involves the use of a variety of medicinal plants that merit investigation.Aims:To investigate the antimicrobial activity of bark of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre, stem of Rubia cordifolia Linn, leaves of Jasminum officinale Linn, stem of Berberis ceylanica C.K. Schneid. and fruit of Garcina zeylanica Roxb.Subjects and Methods:Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of dried bark of Pongamia pinnata (Magul karanda), dried stem of Rubia cordifolia Linn (Welmadata), tender leaves of Jasminum officinale Linn (Jasmine) and dried stem of Berberis ceylanica (Dāruharidrā) were prepared according to standard protocols and tested for antimicrobial activity against five clinical isolates and one standard strain each of Candida albicans (ATCC 10231), Candida parapsilosis (ATCC 22019) and six Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clinical isolates using the well diffusion method. Experiments were done in triplicates using well diffusion method. The plant extracts which gave a zone of inhibition in the well diffusion assay were further tested for Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC).Results:Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Berberis ceylanica and ethanolic extract of Rubia cordifolia had antimicrobial activity against Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis. Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Garcinia zeylanica, and the ethanolic extracts of Jasminum officinale, Rubia cordifolia and Pongamia pinnata had antimicrobial activity against MRSA.Conclusions:Berberis ceylanica and Rubia crodifolia had antimicrobial activity against Candida species while Garcinia zeylanica, Jasminum officinale, Rubia crodifolia and Pongamia pinnata had antimicrobial activity against MRSA.

This study investigates the relationship between environmental managementpractices (EMPs) on financial performance (FP) using the data from thirtyrubber manufacturing organizations by building panel models for the sampleduring the period of 2012-2016. The study has considered the three differentEMPs of energy reduction (amount of furnace oil use per day), waste (amount ofwaste water generates), and recycle (amount of recycle raw material) incapturing the effect of EMPs on FP. In addition, to elucidate how financialperformance is dealing with EMPs, the study used Return on Assets (ROA) as adeterminant of financial performance. It is more difficult to identify the generalrelationship between EMPs and FP of firms due to its heterogeneity during thegrowth of firms.’ The estimation results suggested that the recycling of wastematerial had significant negative driving forces on FP. However, waste watertreatment and furnace oil consumption had no significant impact on FP.Therefore, it is critical to investigate the relationship between FP and EMPswhich is yet to be resolved in order to build up a scope for companies toimplement better environmental practices in the organizations.KeywordsEnvironmental management practices; Financial performances; rubber industry