Morphological, anatomical and antibacterial characteristics of Persicaria maculosa Gray plants growing in Lang Sen Wetland Reserve, Long An province, Vietnam

This study aimed to understand the adaptation characteristics of species Persicaria maculosa to living conditions and to add data on them as folk medicinal plants of Vietnam. Research methods included analysis of external morphological characteristics and microscopic structure of stems, leaves and roots. The antibacterial activities of ethanol plant extracts on four bacterial strains were also conducted through agar well diffusion method. The results showed that the plants had formed morphological and anatomical features to adapt to waterlogging and shade conditions. The leaf extracts from the concentrations of 600 to 1,000 mg/L had bacteriostatic activities against all four experimental strains with the bacterial inhibition zones from 2.39 to 10.91 mm, in which inhibition of Bacillus cereus was the best.