General Introduction

Fruit of Ficus sp is signified commonly as figs which consumed as food and medicine for
several centuries. The other parts of the plant comprise root and leaves are utilized in the
native system of medicine in different disorders, such as colic, indigestion, diarrhea, sore
throats, coughs, bronchial problems, inflammatory, cardiovascular disorders, ulcerative
diseases, and cancers (Lee & Cha, 2010).

Introduction

Antimicrobial

Meningitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis and food poisoning are diseases that caused by
microorganisms (Cox, 2016). Microorganism is recognized commonly as organisms that
accountable for morbidity and mortality. In fact, microbial and fungal disease continue to
remain as the foremost public health problem. Antibiotics had been used effectively in
managing bacteria and fungal infection, as well as the antimicrobial drug resistance which
implemented since the past two decades (World Health Organization, 2013). Hence, the use
of conventional drugs has been challenging in the management of these diseases and the
exploring of alternative solutions for it, happen to be major global concern to the health
organizations.

Currently, plants and their constituents have extensively been used for treatment particularly
in folk medicine to cure various ailments. There are many plants have been shown to have
medicinal properties against microbial and fungal infections, and one of it is Ficus sp. (Lansky
& Paavilainen, 2011). It was believed that in ancient years, the placement of bandages of Ficus
sp on tumors able to treat unusual swelling. The swelling might be due to infection, or known
as cancer (Lansky & Paavilainen, 2011). In fact, leaf of Ficus sp also show their antibacterial
effect on diaarhae (Mandal & Kumar, 2002). Various pharmacological actions such as
anti-hypertensive, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, anti-lipidic, anti-bacterial and
anti-fungal activities was shown in Ficus sp.

In this study, we compared the effect of different extraction solvent of Ficus sp on six
microbial isolates comprises of Streptococcus pyogene, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus sp,
Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Proteus vulgaris.
Antitoxicity

Scientific validation of traditional medicinal plant has been an important path of recent
studies. Most of the Ficus sp in other country like Iran and Philippines (D. Arquion, M. Nuñeza,
& M. Uy, 2015), exhibited their pharmacological action as anti-hypertensive, antioxidant, anti-
inflammatory, anti-ulcer, anti-lipidic, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities in an alternative
medicine. Yet, it need to be further identified, particularly the toxicity of leaf of Ficus sp grown
in Malaysia order to know how safe it is towards human health if developed it as medicinal
treatment in Malaysia. Artemia salina, a primitive aquatic arthropod is used as target organism
to identify bioactive compounds in the plant extracts. The toxicity activity of the brine shrimp
test was adapted by Meyer, et al. (1982). It is a convenient preliminary toxicity test, since the
brine shrimp is extremely sensitive to various chemical substances. The assay is reflected a
beneficial tool for preliminary toxicity assessment of plant extract (Meyer, et al., 1982). The
objective for current work was to study the toxicity of Ficus sp crude extracts though the Brine
Shrimp Assay.