In vitro antibacterial of ethanolic extract african leaf (vernonia amygdalina)

African leaves (Vernonia amygdalina) is traditionally used in Indonesia to treat various diseases; e.g diabetes mellitus and infection diseases. The aim of this research is to obtain phytochemicals compounds and determine antibacterial activity from ethanolic extracts of African leaves. Phytochemical screening was carried out using qualitative methods: color reaction and precipitation. Antibacterial activity were checked using contact bioautography and agar diffusion methods. This study used Escherichia coli as representative of Gram negative and Staphylococcus aureus as representative of Gram positive bacteria with 3 replications. The results showed ethanolic extract of African leaves contains bioactive compounds of flavonoids, phenols, saponins, tannins, alkaloids, and steroids. Antibacterial activity was not found in the contact bioautography method, but it could be seen in the agar diffusion method. African leaf ethanol extract had a strong inhibition of bacterial growth against S. aureus than E. coli (p<0.05). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 1.56 mg/mL for S. aureus and 12.5 mg/mL against E. coli. The active fraction in the mobile phase used chloroform:methanol (9:1). Further research is being carried out to isolated antibacterial compound from the active fraction using Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS).