Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12:
227-230. 2008. Antibacterial Activity of Some Indian Medicinal Plants Prusti, A.,* Mishra, S.R.,** Sahoo, S.** and Mishra, S.K.** * Department of
Botany, ** University Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences *Corresponding
author: aratibala_prusti@hotmail.com Issued 18 April 2008 ABSTRACT The preliminary phytochemical study and in vitro antibacterial activity of the ethanolic
extracts of three plants having ethnomedicinal uses
collected from tribal belt of INTRODUCTION According to
World Health Organization, medicinal plants are the best source to obtain a
variety of newer herbal drugs. About 80% of individuals from developed
countries use traditional medicine, which has compounds derived from
medicinal plants. Therefore, such plants should be investigated to better
understand their properties, safety and efficacy. The use of
plant extracts and phytochemicals, both with known
antimicrobial properties, can be of great significance in therapeutic
treatments. In the last few years, a number of studies have been conducted in
different countries to prove such efficiency. Many plants have been used
because of their antimicrobial traits, which are chiefly due to synthesized
during secondary metabolism of the plant.
Litsea glutinosa L. (LG) belonging to the family Lauraceae
commonly known as Jaisanda
having many ethnomedicinal uses in diarrhoea, dysentery, rheumatism and has antispasmodic,
wound healing properties (Ambasta, 1986). Vitex peduncularis W. (VP) belonging to the family Verbenaceae (Madochulia), used as antiinflammatory,
analgesic, antimalarial, antispasmodic and also
used in diarrhoea and dysentery (Ambasta, 1986). Elephantopus scaber L.
(ES) belongs to family Asteraceae (Tatmuli), given in dysuria, urethral
discharges, diarrhoea, snake bite and dysentery (Ambasta, 1986). The present study is aimed
to carry out the preliminary phytochemical analysis
and to screen in vitro
antibacterial activity against some major urinary tract infection ( MATERIALS The plants
were collected from the tribal belts of Bolangir
District of Orissa, India on the basis of their ethnomedicinal uses. The plants were identified,
confirmed and authenticated by the taxonomist of Department of Botany, RESULTS The leaves of LG, VP and ES were extracted with
ethanol in Soxhlet assembly for 48 hrs and the
percentage yield of each extract is presented in Table 1. The extracts were
subjected to preliminary phytochemical analysis,
the result of which revealed the presence of the zone of inhibition is given
in Table 1. The antimicrobial
activity in terms of zone of inhibition was shown in Table 2. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION The antibacterial activity of the ethanolic extracts has been shown. Among the extracts, ES exhibited highest activity against all the tested strains. It showed highest activity against P. mirabilis (19.8±0.7 µg/disc) and the lowest activity against E. coli (11.5±0.3 µg/disc) at 500 and 250 µg/disc respectively. VP extracts also exhibited good inhibitory activity against all the tested microorganisms and the highest activity was found against P. mirabilis (17.8±0.52 µg/disc) and lowest against S. aureus (9.7±0.5 µg/disc) at 500 and 250 µg/disc respectively. LG showed highest and lowest activity against S. aureus (15.1±0.6 µg/disc) and P. aeruginosa (8.1±0.56 µg/disc) at 500 and 250 µg/disc respectively. The observed activity may be due to the presence of potent phytoconstituents in the extracts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to the
H.O.D., U.D.P.S., REFERENCES Ambasta, S.P.
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S.P., Dash, S.K. (2006). Antibacterial activity of Hybanthus enneaspermus against selected Table-1: The phytochemical analysis of the extracts.
LG, VP and ES stand
for Litsea glutinosa L.; Vitex peduncularis W.; Elephantopus scaber L., respectively. Table-2: The
antibacterial activity of the plant extracts.
The letters a and b indicates the concentrations of the extracts at 500 and 250 µg/disc, respectively. Org-Organisms 1. Escherichia coli; 2. Enterococcus faecalis; 3. Pseudomonas aeruginosa; 4. Proteus mirabilis; 5. Staphylococcus aureus. CF and G stands for Ciprofloxacin 25 µg/disc and Gentamicin 10 µg/disc, respectively. LG, VP and ES stands for Litsea glutinosa L.; Vitex peduncularis W.; Elephantopus scaber L., respectively. *All the values are mean ± standard
deviation of three determinations. |