ABSTRACT
Piper longum L. (Piperaceae) commonly known as "long pepper" is a well known medicinal plant in ayurveda. Different parts of this plant, such as root, seed, fruit, whole plant etc. are used traditionally in various ailments. Here we have investigated the antidermatophytic activity of sequentially extracted petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol and water extracts from P. longum leaf against Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, T. tonsurans, Microsporum fulvum and M. gypseum. Better activity of chloroform and methanol extracts was observed. The chloroform extract was selected for further study and the MIC value was recorded as 5.0 mg ml(-1) against the test organisms. In the chloroform extract, tannins and phenolic compounds were detected. Further activity-guided fractionation of chloroform extract by silica gel column chromatography yielded nine major fractions. Among these, fraction-1, 4, 5 and 7 showed higher antidermatophytic activity. Fraction-4 on further purification by repeated column chromatography yielded a potential antidermatophytic fraction showing MIC value of 0.625 mg ml(-1) against T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum as determined by broth microdilution method. The major compounds were identified as 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, bis(2-ethylhexyl) ester (C24H38O4] (41.45 %), 2,2-dimethoxybutane (C6H14O2] (13.6 %) and ß-myrcene (C10H16) (6.75 %) based on GC-MS data.
ABSTRACT
Fusarium oxysporum which causes wilt is a serious pathogen. Fusarium isolates were isolated from Assam located in North East region of India. Morphological identification of Fusarium isolates was done using conidial and hyphal structures. Molecular identification of Fusarium isolates was done by amplifying the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the conserved ribosomal DNA using primers ITS1 and ITS4. All the ITS sequences were compared for gaps and similarity. Further, characterization of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was carried out using 40 primers. 15 primers that gave reproducible results were selected. RAPD was used to observe the relatedness among these isolates. Thus, it was concluded that molecular profiling using ITS is an indispensable method for identification studies.
ABSTRACT
Sarcochlamys pulcherrima (Roxb.) Gaud. is widely used as traditional medicine and food by different tribes and communities of Assam in India and in neighboring countries. Recent studies conducted in our laboratory showed the broad-spectrum antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of its crude extract and different solvent fractions and detected the presence of phenolics, flavonoids, saponin, and acidic compounds. This review gives a bird's eye view of the traditional uses of S. pulcherrima as food and medicine based on the information gathered by personal interaction with the people of different places of Assam as well as the investigations made on its ethno-botanical claims, biological activities, and other aspects by various workers since years till date and highlight the prospects of future research.
ABSTRACT
The antifungal activity of Solanum melongena leaf, extracted with petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol and water was evaluated against three human pathogenic dermatophytes namely Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum and T. tonsurans and two opportunistic fungi Candida albicans and Trichosporon beigelii. Maximum yield of plant components was 4.32 g, extracted in water and minimum 1.07 g in petroleum ether from 150 g of dry plant material. Except water extract, all the extracts possessed significant antifungal property. All the test pathogens showed highest sensitivity towards chloroform extract, exhibiting maximum inhibition zone diameter of 50.0 mm in T. mentagrophytes and minimum 30.0 mm in C. albicans at 2 × 10(5) µg/ml concentration. Chloroform extract at lower concentration 2.5 × 10(4) µg/ml was inhibitory for all the test pathogens, exhibiting inhibition zone diameter 21.0 mm against T. tonsurans and 15.0 mm against C. albicans and T. beigelii. The activity of the different solvent extracts against the test pathogens in terms of inhibition zone diameter in decreasing order was as followsChloroform extract > Petroleum ether extract > Methanol extract for T. mentagrophytes, T. rubrum and T. tonsurans.Chloroform extract > Methanol extract > Petroleum ether extract for C. albicans and T. beigelii.