Ethnobotanical
Leaflets 13: 472-74 , 2009. Invitro Antimicrobial
Activity and Phytochemical Analysis of Ficus religiosa
L. and Ficus bengalensis
L. against Diarrhoeal Enterotoxigenic
E. coli Uma, B.*,
Prabhakar, K. and Rajendran,
S. Division of
Microbiology, Annamalai Nagar
Tamil Nadu, * Corresponding
Author: E mail : amu_sri2003@yahoo.co.in Issued Abstract The
barks of Ficus religiosa
L. and Ficus bengalensis L.,
which belongs to family Moraceae, were investigated
for invitro
antibacterial activity and phytochemical analysis.
The various solvents extract like aqueous, methanol, chloroform, petroleum
ether and hexane were screened for antibacterial activity against Enterotoxigenic E. coli isolated from diarrhoeal
patients. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of
the methanol extracts of both the plants showed the presence of
carbohydrates, flavonoids, aminoacids,
steroids, saponins and tannins. The extracts were
subjected for antibacterial activity against Enterotoxignic
E.coli (ETEC) at 200mg/ml concentration by
disc diffusion method. The results of antibacterial activity revealed that
methanol extracts of both the plants barks exhibits good activity compared to
chloroform and aqueous extracts. Petroleum ether and hexane extracts did not
show any activity. The antibacterial activities of extracts were compared
with standard antibiotics. Key words: Ficus religiosa, Ficus bengalensis,
diarrhoea, Disc diffusion Assay, medicinal plants. Introduction Diarrhoea is
one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among infants and
children in developing countries. Although commensal
representatives found in the intestinal flora of humans are non-pathogenic,
certain strains are highly pathogenic. Enterotoxigenic
E. coli (ETEC)
is the most prevalent among the various types of diarrhoeagenic
E. coli
in Ficus religiosa. L. belongs to the family Moraceae, is commonly known as Peepal
tree, and has many medicinal properties. The barks have been used for diarrhoea, dysentery, leucorrhea,
menorrhagia, for vaginal and other urogential disorders. Ficus bengalensis belongs to the family Moraceae, which is commonly known as Banyan tree. It is
used in Ayurveda for treatment of diarrhoea, piles, teeth and skin disorders (Warrier et al.,
1995). The present study was aimed to carry out the preliminary phytochemical analysis and to screen invitro
antibacterial activity against diarrhoeal Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) isolated from patients. Materials
and Methods The barks of F. religiosa and F. bengalensis were collected in and
around Chidambaram, The antibacterial screening of the
extracts were carried out by determining the zone of inhibition using disc
diffusion method (Sahoo et al., 2006). The strains were grown to logarithmic phase in
nutrient broth and the inoculum was prepared by
adjusting the turbidity of bacterial suspension to 0.5 McFarland’s tube with
nutrient broth (Mc Farland et al., 1987). The dried extracts were dissolved in
5% Dimethyl sulphoxide
(DMSO) to the concentration 200mg/ml and finally sterilized by filtration.
The sterile discs (6mm in diameter) were impregnated with 20 l of the above extracts to achieve desired
concentration of 4mg/ml. The extract discs were placed on Muller-Hinton agar
plates (Himedia), which were previously inoculated
with test strains and incubated at 37oC for 24 hours. Amikacin disc (10g) and 5% DMSO impregnated discs
were used as positive and negative controls respectively and the zones of
inhibition were recorded. Results Preliminary phytochemical
analysis of the methanol extracts of the barks of F. religiosa
and F. bengalensis
showed the presence of carbohydrates, flavonoids,
aminoacids, steroids, sopaninis
and tannins. The antibacterial activity in terms of zone of inhibition is
shown in Table 1. Table.
1 Zone of inhibition of Ficus religiosa.
L and Ficus bengalensis L.
Discussion
and Conclusion The use of plants and plant preparations has
been in existent since prehistory. The World Health Organization (WHO)
reported that about 80% of the world’s population depend mainly on traditional
medicine and the traditional treatment involve mainly the use of plant
extracts (WHO, 1993). In the present study, among the various solvent
extracts, methanol extract found to be more active against all the Enterotoxigenic E. coli, which is isolated from diarrhoeal
patients. These findings suggest new pathway in elucidating a potent antimicrobial agent from Ficus religiosa L. and Ficus bengalensis L. in general in Ficus species. Invivo
experiments are needed to confirm these findings. References 1.
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