Introduction

Ayurveda is a traditional system of medicine using a wide range of modalities to create health and well being. The primary aim of Ayurveda health care is to restore the physical mental and emotional balance in patients, thereby improving health, preventing disease and also treating any current illness. Herbal medicine is still the mainstay of about 75-80% of the world population, mainly in the developing countries for primary healthcare. However among the estimated 250, 000-400,000 plant species, only 6% have been studied for biological activity, and about 15% have been investigated phytochemically. Therefore it seems necessary to evaluate the herbs properly (vandana, et al., 2008).

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death world-wide. Antibiotic resistance has become a global concern (Westh, et al., 2004). The increasing failure of chemotherapeutics and antibiotic resistance exhibited by pathogenic microbial infectious agents has led to the screening of several medicinal plants for their potential antimicrobial activity (Colombo, et al., 1996; Parekh and Chanda, 2007).

The plant is claimed to be useful in rheumatism, and also possess anti-inflammatory effect. The crude drug of   Gmelina asiatica may exert anti-inflammatory activity by anti-proliferative, anti-oxidative and lysosomal membrane stabilization (Ismal, et al., 1997). A bioguided extraction and fractionation of the alcoholic extract of the roots of Gmelina asiatica  afforded a new flavones derivative named ovalifolin [3-(3-methyl-1-butenyl)-6-methoxy-5,7,4’-trihydroxy flavones] (+) pinoresinol (Satyanarayana, et al., 2007).

Materials and methods

The present investigation is intented to evaluate the preliminary phytochemical characters such as determination of pharmacogonostic and fluorescence characters, screening of bioactive principles and antibacterial activity of a important medicinal plant, Gmelina asiatica L., Verbenaceae.

Plant description and medicinal use

Gmelina asiatica Linn (Syn. Gmelina parvifolia) is commonly known as “Nilakkumil” in Tamil and “Gopabhadra” in Sanskrit. A large straggling or scrambling deciduous bush or shrub, 3 m tall, petioles 0.5-3 cm long, slender; thin, smooth, leaves small, much-branched leaves small, petioles 0.5-3 cm long, slender, flowers large, yellow colour, calyx about 4 mm long, apically,corolla large, yellow 4-5 cm long, bilabiate,the tube narrow and curvate below4-lobed,fertile stamens 2,staminodes 2(Dassanayake, 1983).

Collection of materials

Material was collected at Perungudi village in Madurai district.The identification was carried out with the help of Flora of the Presidency of Madras.

Preparation of plant extracts

The plant materials were washed with water to remove the adhering dust particles and were shade dried at room – temperature.Extracts were prepared from shade-dried samples following the method of Audu et al. (2000). The dried plant materials were ground into a fine powder in an electric blender. Thereafter 5 g each of fine powdered sample was

weighed and soaked separately in 15 ml of different solvents (Absolute alcohol, Benzene, Chloroform, Ether, and Water) in the ratio of 1:3 weights for volume (W/V). These were

allowed to stand for 24 hrs at ambient room temperature. The soaked plant powder was filtered through filter paper (Whatman No.1) and the filtrate was used as crude extract.

Antibacterial assay and Collection of microorganisms

The microbes were Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcous faecalis . They were obtained from research laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Thiagarajar College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Preparation of inoculum

Each organism was recovered for testing by sub-culturing on fresh media. A loopful inoculum of each bacterium was suspended in 5 ml of nutrient broth and incubated overnight at 37^oC.

Preparation of media

Nutrient agar is composed of

Beef extract               – 3.0 g

Peptone                       -5.0 g

Agar                            -15.0 g

Distilled water –           1000 ml

The medium was adjusted to pH 7.4 and sterilized by autoclaving at 15 lbs pressure (121^oC) for 15 minutes.

Results and Discussion

Acetone extract of the leaf of Gmelina asiataica showed a well profound, inhibitory activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Micrococcus lateus while stem extract showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Proteus mirabilis and Klebsiella pneumonia (Fig 2a  &  Fig. A). However, acetone extract of root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and

Micrococcus luteus. In general, root extract showed significantly greater inhibitory activity compared to other parts against Staphylococcus aureus.

Table 1: Antibacterial activity of Gmelina asiatica  L. against pathogenic bacteria.

A-Acetone    B-Benzene    C-Chloroform        E-Ethanol          Et-Ether     Aq-Aqueous

Figure 2a:  Antibacterial activity of acetone extracts of Gmelina asiatica  L. against pathogenic bacteria.   Click here to View figure

Figure 2b:  Antibacterial activity of benzene extracts of Gmelina asiatica L. against pathogenic bacteria.   Click here to View figure

Figure 2d: Antibacterial activity of ethanol extracts of Gmelina asiatica  L. against pathogenic bacteria.   Click here to View figure

Figure 2e: Antibacterial activity of ether extracts of Gmelina asiatica L.against pathogenic bacteria.   Click here to View figure

Figure 2f:  Antibacterial activity of aqueous extracts of Gmelina asiatica  L. against pathogenic bacteria.   Click here to View figure

Benzene extract of the leaf of Gmelina asiatica showed a well profound inhibitory activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus and Escherichia coli, while stem extract showed a maximum  inhibitory activity against Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus and Proteus mirabilis (Fig 2b  &  Fig. B). However, benzene extract of root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. Benzene extract of root powder showed significantly greater inhibitory action than  that of other  plant parts.

Chloroform extract of the leaf of Gmelina asiatica showed a well profound inhibitory activity against Micrococcus luteus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis, while stem extract showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Klebsiella pneumonia and Bacillus subtilis (Fig 2c  &  Fig. C). However, chloroform extract of root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus and Bacillus subtilis.

Figure A : Antibacterial activity of acetone  extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Figure B : Antibacterial activity of benzene  extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Figure C : Antibacterial activity of chloroform  extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Figure D : Antibacterial activity of ethanol extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Figure E: Antibacterial activity of ether  extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Figure F  : Antibacterial activity of aqueous  extract of Gmelina asiatica L.   Click here to View figure

Ethanol extract of leaf of Gmelina asiatica showed a well profound inhibitory activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis, while stem extract showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus pneumoniae (Fig 2d  &  Fig. D). Similarly, ethanol extract of root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Micrococcus luteus followed by Proteus mirabilis and Klebsiella pneumonia.

Ether extract of the leaf of Gmelina asiatica showed a well profound inhibitory activity against Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while stem extract showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Proteus mirabilis followed by Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli (Fig 2e  &  Fig. E). Similarly, ether extract root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

 Aquous extract of the leaf of Gmelina asiatica showed a well profound inhibitory activity against Escherichia coli followed by klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while stem extract showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae (Fig 2f  &  Fig. F). However, aqueous extract of root powder showed a maximum inhibitory activity against Proteus mirabilis and Micrococcus luteus.

Conclusion

In the present plant, ”Gmelina asiatica.L” of Verbenaceae family, the powder extract of  leaf, stem and root have been taken. In that, the inhibitory activity of  the extracts against different bacteria have been noted and tabulated. Of  which, the highest inhibitory activity is seen in ethanol and ether extracts of  leaf against the two bacteriae (i) Klebsilla Pneumoniae (ii) Micrococcus luteus.

Acknowledgement

I am immensely thankful to Dr. SM.Sundara Pandian for his perfect guidance towards my work. And also I thank my family members for being a good support.

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