Antibacterial Screening of Crude Fractions of Calotropis Procera (Linn) and Gc-Ms Profile of Fractions Obtained from the Extracts of Calotropis Procera

Abstract

Traditional medicine also known as Indigenous or folk medicine comprises of knowl- edge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medi- cine as the sum of total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. The column chromatography was used to col- lect the crude fractions; solvents like petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol were used. The antibacterial activities of the crude fractions of Calotropis procera (leaf and stem) were evaluated in this study using some selected microorganisms like Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae ATCC 24162, Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 34089, whereby the plant was extracted using (acetone, methanol and aqueous). The paper disc method was used after which the zone of inhibition around the discs was es- timated. The results showed that in the leaf of the plant; E. coli with Aqueous-methanol fraction and K. pneumoniae ATCC 34089 with acetone-petroleum ether fraction had the highest yield of 30mm respectively while in stem; K. pneumoniae ATCC 34089 with methanol-methanol fraction had the highest yield of 25mm. The structural elucidation of the bioactive compounds in the extracts were evaluated using Gc-Ms (Gas Chromatogra- phy-Mass Spectophotometry) which reveals the chemical compounds like phenol, methyl palmitate, Phthalic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid and other compounds known for valuable antimicrobial, biological activities and antioxidant properties. The leaves and the stem are having good chemical compounds that can be responsible for the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.