ABSTRACT

Personal hygiene encompasses all the daily routines that keep our body clean. This includes

regular healthy habit but when people don't learn those habits, consequences may develop

ranging from social problems to potentially serious diseases. One of the most prominent

consequences of bad hygiene is body odor. Body odor occurs due to the interaction of bacteria

and sweat produced by the apocrine glands. This study aimed to compare the antimicrobial effect

of Basella alba Linn. (Alugbati) leaves crude extract and Basella alba Linn. (Alugbati) cream

against two odor-causing bacteria which were indicated by the formation of clearing zone (mm)

inhibitions, circular zone around the disk containing antimicrobial agent. The two odor-causing

bacteria used in the experiment were gram-positive Micrococcus luteus and gram-positive

Staphylococcus aureus. The result of phytochemical screening (Tongco JV. et al., 2015) showed

that the alugbati leaves extract contains the chemical constituents, flavonoids and tannins, which

are responsible for the antimicrobial effect. The alugbati leaves extract has an antimicrobial

effect against Micrococcus luteus which showed 10% antimicrobial activity and Staphylococcus

aureus which showed 50% antimicrobial activity. The results showed that the alugbati cream

didn't inhibited the growth of the two bacteria, while the alugbati extract alone inhibited its

growth with an Antimicrobial Index of 0.1 for M. luteus and 0.5 for S. aureus. The results proved

that the Basella alba Linn. (Alugbati) leaves crude ethanolic extract can be an antimicrobial

agent against on the selected two odor-causing bacteria: Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus

aureus, while the Alugbati cream can't.

Keywords: Basella alba Linn.; Tannin; Flavonoid; Clearing zone inhibitions; Antimicrobial

Assay; Antimicrobial Index; Micrococcus luteus; Staphylococcus aureus