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Ethnobotanical
Leaflets 14: 306-11, 2010. Antimicrobial Activity of a Rarely Known
Species, Morinda citrifolia L. Usha, R*, Sangeetha Sashidharan
and M. Palaniswamy Department of Microbiology *Corresponding author E.mail: ushaanbu@rediffmail.com Issued: March 01, 2010 Abstract Morinda Citrifolia is one of the most important traditional
Polynesian medicinal plants. This small evergreen tree is native from South Eastern Asia to Key words: Antimicrobial activity, Morinda citrifolia, Petroleumether extract and inhibitory activity. Introduction Morinda citrifolia is an important medicinal plant which has
been used for many centuries through out the south
pacific. It is a small shrub, three to twelve meters height (Wang, Su
2001). The leaves, seeds, bark, green
fruit and roots have been used in various tropical remedies in diverse parts
of the South East Asia and Noni contains
a great variety of active constituents including Morinda is reputed to have antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antitumor, antihelminthic, analgesic, hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, and immune enhancing effects. (Duke et al., 2002; McClatchey, 2002 ; Wang et.al., 2002; Liu et al., 2001 ; Wang and Su, 2001).Originally, the leaves were applied directly to the skin to treat ulcerations and minor infections. Some marketing companies have proposed that drinking noni juice can be used against a very wide variety of ailments. Scientific information about the therapeutic effects of noni on humans is currently limited. The present investigation has been carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of M.citrifolia leaf extracts. Materials & Methods Plant collection : Leaves were collected from Malappuram. The Taxonomic identities of plants were confirmed by Dr.Gopalan, Retd Scientist, Botanical Survey of India, TNAU Campus for the Botanical verification and authenticating the plant material. Fresh plant materials were shade dried and homogenized to a fine powder. Plant extraction The powdered medicinal plant material was taken and subjected to successive solvent extraction in the increasing order of polarity i.e. from non polar to high polar. The solvents used are Petroleum ether, Benzene, Chloroform, Ehtyl acetate, Ethanol and water. For above solvent extraction 50g of powdered plant material of MorindacitrifoliaL was mixed with 250 ml of Petroleum ether and subjected to occasional shaking for 24 hrs. The extracts were filtered through Muslin cloth. And extracts concentrated by evaporation at room temperature until the solvent gets evaporated completely. After complete drying the above said residues were extracted with all the other solvents separetly. Then extracted materials lyophilized by occasional shaking for 24 hrs. Bacterial Strains Bacterial Strains used in this
study were purchased from MTCC. E.coli, S. aureus,
Candida albicans, Aspergillus
Antimicrobial Activity Antimicrobial assay of solvent
extracts were performed by Disc diffusion method. (Bauer et al 1966). Lawn culture of E.coli, S. aureus,
Candida albicans and Aspergillus Antibacterial and antifungal activity was determined by measuring the diameter of the zone of inhibition surrounding microbial growth. For each strain, controls were included that comprised pure solvents instead of the extract (Parekh and Chanda 2007). The experiments were repeated three times and the mean values were presented. Results The antimicrobial activity in terms of zone of inhibition was presented in Table 1 and Table 2. The invitro antibacterial and antifungal activity of petroleum ether, chloroform and benzene extract of Morinda citrifolia leaf showed in Table.1. Ethyl acetate,Ethanol and water extracts activity showed in Table 2. The results obtained from the disc diffusion assay showed that there has been an increasing effect on microbial growth inhibition with increasing concentration of the extract. The extract showed good inhibitory activity on almost all the microbes tested. The maximum inhibition was recorded against E. coli with the extract of petroleum ether in 20mm.The gram positive S.aureus was susceptible with the inhibition zone ranging from 18mm in water extract. The maximum inhibition was observed against C. albicans with the chloroform extract. The water extract showed significant effect against A.niger. The observed activity may be due to the presence of potent phytoconstituents in the leaf extract. This may be indicative of a significant potential for isolating purer compounds. Table 1. Anti
microbial activity of Morinda citrifolia.
Table 2. Anti
microbial activity of Morinda citrifolia
Discussion and Conclusion Antimicrobial activity of Morinda citrifolia leaf extract is compared with the antibiotics` of the respective organism. It was found that the extract in some cases exhibited the zone of inhibition which was equal or greater than the zone of inhibition of antibiotic(Rios and Recio.,2005).As a result it is` sure that these leaf extract can surely inhibit the growth of these microorganisms there by preventing various disease such as skin infections, diabetes, cancer etc. Morinda citrifolia leaf extract thus provides safe, easy, effective and practical solutions to every day ailments leaving behind no toxins and creating a clean, pleasant atmosphere. The overall results indicate promising baseline information for the potential uses of solvent extracts of M. citrifolia leaf in the treatment of infectious disease. Acknowledgement We thank support for completion of this work and for their constant motivation. References Bauer, A.W., W.M. Kirby., J.C. Sherris, and M. Turck. 1966. Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardised single disc method. J. American journal of clinical pathology. 45(4): 493 - 496. Bratman S, Girman. 2003. A Hand book of Herbs and Supplement and
their Therapeutic Uses. St. Louis: Mosby; pp769-771. Duke J, Bogenschutz M, Duke 2002. Hand book of medicinal Plants 2nd . Boca Fugh-Berman A
2003.The 5 Minute Herbal and
Dietary Supplement Consult. Philadelphia: Lippincott: pp.236-237 Gurib-Fakeem A, Brendler 2004. T-Medicinal and Aromatic plants of the Islands. Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press; pp, 331-332. Kamiya K, Tanaka Y, Endang H, Umar M, Satake T. Chemical
constituents of Morinda citrifolia fruits inhibit copper induced low-density lipoprotein oxidation. J Agric Food Chem. 2004;52 (19): 5843-8. Liu G, Bode a,
of Morinda citrifolia fruits inhibit AP-1 transactivation and cell transformation in the mouse epidermal JB6 cell line. Cancer Res. 61(15):5749-56. Mc Clatchey, W. 2002, From the Polynesian healers to health food stores; changing perspectives of Morinda citrifolia (Rubiaceae). Integrated Cancer therapy.1(2):110-20. Parekh. J., Chanda, S., 2007 . Antibacterial and Phylochemical studies on twelve species of Indian medicinal plants. J
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2005. Medicinal plants and antimicrobial activity. J. Journal of Ethanopharmacology. 100:80-84. Shotipruk A, Kiatsongserm J, Pavasant P, Goto M, Sasaki M. Pressurized hot water extraction of anthraquinones from the root of Morinda citrifolia.Biotechnol Prog.2004;20(6):1872-5. Stalman M,Koskamp AM,Luderer R,Vernooy JH,Wind
JC,Wullems GJ,Croes AF 2003.Regulation of anthraquinone biosynthesis in cell cultures of Morinda citrifolia.J Plant Physiol. 160(6):607-14. Wang,M.Y&C.su,2001.Cancer preventive effect of Morinda citrifolia (Noni). Annals of the New York Wang,M.Y,B.J.West,C.J.Jensen,Nowicki,C.Su,A.Palu&G.Anderson,2002, Morinda citrifolia (Noni). a
literature research Acta pharmacologica
Sinica. 23(12):1127-1141. |
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