ABSTRACT

Escherichia coli is a common cause of urinary tract infections (UTI). Urinary tract infections are accompanied by symptoms usually treated with antibiotics, but some types of antibiotics from -lactams, fosfomycin and quinolones have been resistant to E. coli. The use of medicinal plants is now in high demand by the community because of its benefits. Red betel (Piper crocatum) is a plant that has efficiency in treating a variety of diseases. Red betel is known to contain several compounds such as flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, euganol, essential oils and others that are estimated to have antibacterial activity. This research aims to determine the antibacterial activity of aqueous extract of red betel leaf (Piper crocatum) against the E. coli, isolated from the urine of UTI patients. This type of research is an laboratory experiment with a Complete Randomized Design (CRD). There are two groups of experiments which are the four treatments and two controls. The four treatments, consisting of P1, P2, P3, and P4, are the extract concentrations of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The control consisted of distilled water solvent as a negative control (P0) and the chloramphenicol as a positive control (P5). The test was done according to Kirby Bauer method. The results showed that the aqueous extract of red betel leaves had antibacterial activity against E. coli. From four repetitions, extracts showed antibacterial activity were relatively stable. Antibacterial activity of extract was greater in higher concentrations, but is not greater than the chloramphenicol. Keywords: urinary tract infections, Escherichia coli