Psidium guajava Linn.

species (guava) is an evergreen plant native to tropical

America (Okamoto et al., 2009). The leaves are 2 to 6 inches long and 1 to 2 inches
wide, aromatic when crushed, and appear dull-green with stiff but coriaceous with
pronounced veins. The plant has widespread medicinal use among the worlds
populations. Being a plant of tropical and subtropical regions, it can be found on
plantations, in backyards of homes, or naturally in other areas, and could even be
considered invasive species (Richardson and Rejmnek, 2011). The plants are
attractive and produce deliciously rich, sweet fruits that are excellent fresh or in
desserts and even contain Vitamin C.

Table 1. Summary of the Biological Studies done on Psidium guajava

Subject
Biological Studies

Results
 Antimicrobial screening

effect of essential oils and methanol, hexane, and ethyl acetate extracts from guava leaves

The guava leaves were extracted using a Soxhlet extractor and solvents in order of polarity and then concentrated in a rotary evaporator. The
essential oil was obtained from fresh leaves of guava using a Clevenger type doser and the extracti
They found that the methanol extract showed greatest bacterial inhibition. No statistically significant differences were observed between the
tested extract concentrations and their effect.
 Antibacterial Activity

Antimicrobial susceptibility

The plant extracts were tested on Mueller Hinton II plates to detect the presence of antibacterial activity. Only two of the crude solvent extracts
prepared from the leaves of Psidium guajava, methanol and ethanol, showed inhibitory activity agai
bacteria, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus, were susceptible to the two extracts, while neither of the Gram-negative bacterium showed
any inhibition.
 Ethanolic Extracts

Mahfuzul Hoque et al. found no antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts

coli and S. entertidis; however Vieira et al. found guava sprout extracts were effective against
inhibiting E. coli.
 Aqueous Extracts

Sanches et al. found that the aqueous extract of guava was effective against Staphylococcus and Bacillus
 Anti-inflammatory Activity

Tannin

Tannin rich fraction was found to be more effective in stabilizing the RBC membrane against hypo tonicity induced hemolysis compared to
tannin rich fraction in the control of inflammation.Tannin fraction may inhibit the triggering of inflammation in acne.