Anacardium occidentale (Cashew) is a member of genus Anacardium belonging to family Anacardiaceae, which has its roots in different parts of the world. Va rious parts of the plant possess curative qualities like antidiabetic, antiinflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal properties. Therefore aim of the present work was to investigate the antibacterial activity of methanol extracts of different cashew tree parts on Staphylococcus aureus strains. Methanol extract of Anacardium occidentale parts such as leaves, bark, shell and nut was tested against 5 strains of S.aureus. It was found that all S.aureus strains (100%) were sensitive to Anacardium occidentale shell extract while leaves extract, bark extract and nut extract were not effective against it. S. aureus strains were further tested against 5 different antibiotics. It was found that all S. aureus (100%) were sensitive to Ampicillin and Gatifloxacin each, which was the highest among all other antibiotics tested followed by Azithromycin (80%), Clindamycin (60%) and Erythromycin (40%). When studying the synergistic activity of extract and the antibiotic Gatifloxacin, it was found that, the organisms were much sensitive to this combination. S. aureus was found to be 100% sensitive each to leaves extract, bark extract and shell extract while 60% to nut extract. The present study highlighted the remarkable antibacterial activities of the A. occidentale extracts on S. aureus strains.
