Bioactivity of hemidesmus indicus (L.) on human pathogenic bacteria and culex qinquifasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the antibacterial and mosquito larvicidal activity of the Hemidesmus indicus (Linn.) root extract with five different solvents. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of extraction from Hemidesmus indicus roots on five different solvents activity against the pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms also larvae of the Culex qinquifasciatus mosquito. H. indicus (L.) is one of the plants used in Ayurveda for several remedies it belongs to the family Asclepiadaceae. The experimental roots were tested for their phytochemical constituents and antimicrobial activity against twelve human pathogenic bacteria microorganisms using standard disc diffusion method. Moreover, the methanol and petroleum ether extracts were active against most of the tested organisms as they showed potential phytochemical constituents. The antimicrobial activities of the extracts were compared with their respective reference antibiotics as Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs). Apart from petroleum ether, all other solvent extracts such as ethanol, methanol, chloroform and aqueous extract showed significant results. Among the 12 bacterial species maximum inhibition zone was 16.00±0.18, 10.65±0.19 and 16.3±0.20 observed the following bacteria such as E. coli, P. mirabilis and S. typhimurium respectively. The larvicidal effect of aqueous extracts of H. indicus roots were tested against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae at the concentrations of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% up to three days also after two days, 100% larval mortality has been observed at 5% concentration of root extract with aqueous solution (dist.water). From this results clearly showed solvent extracts of H. indicus (Linn.) root could be act as an antibacterial as well as larvicidal activity. © 2011 Academic Journals Inc.