Various dosage forms of tridax procumbens and their antimicrobial activity against specific pathogens

Abstract

Background: TridaxProcumbens Linn, (Tridax) is a herb traditionally used in Indian traditional medicine for different ailments like cough, cold, amoebiasis and most importantly for seizing the bleeding and wound management. Practically it is observed that the wound treated with Tridax was found to be very rarely infected and healed properly. Researched suggests that the different dosage form of the Tridax have different potential in wound healing. On these two backgrounds, the hypothesis was made that the Tridax has got antimicrobial property and the antimicrobial potential varies as per the dosage form. Method: To examine the hypothesis, in the present experiment, seven Ayurvedic dosage forms of Tridax viz. fresh leaves juice, fresh flower juice, fresh root juice, aqueous decoction, medicated oil, medicated Ghee, ash, alkaline aqueous water-soluble fraction of the Ash and six organic solvent extracts of Tridax viz. ethanol, methanol, chloroform, ethyl acetate, benzene and petroleum ether were tested for their antimicrobial activity against eleven different disease-causing microbes viz. Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris, Shigellaflexneri Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Chryseobacteriumgleum, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. Antimicrobial experiment was carried out with appropriate nutrient media and disc diffusion method. Results: Leaf juice showed microbial inhibition zone of 28mm against B. subtilis. Flower juice showed 17mm against C. albicans, aqueous decoction showed 14mm against C. gleum, Ethanol extract, Methanol extract, Chloroform ext. and Ethyl act. Extract showed microbial inhibition zone of 17mm, 14mm and 14mm against respectively. Conclusion: The different dosage form of Tridax have a different and significant antimicrobial potential against different microbes. It supports the importance of different processing suggested in classical Ayurvedic text for obtaining different results from aparticular herb.