CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF THE LEAVES OF SARACCA INDICA AGAINST E.COLI NCIM 2832 AND M. AUREUS NCIM 5021.

Abstract

Saracca indica is a terrestrial tree found in tropical rain fed areas across the world. In India it is mostly found in peninsular region and in the foot hills of Himalaya mountain range. Till date its bark has found tremendous pharmacological application due to the presence of sterols like ergosterol which is a precursor of certain prostaglandins. Further investigations so far have indicated good antimicrobial activity too but reports of the application of this are still scanty. The objective of this investigation was not only to see whether the leaf extract also had antimicrobial activity, but to characterize such properties. The work was carried out by noting the difference in growth patterns of two most common opportunistic pathogens like Escherichia coli and Micrococcus aureus. It was observed that the growth rate of these two organisms was reduced using the ethanolic extract. This was primarily due to the presence of myristic acid and palmitic acid in the ethanolic extract, as revealed in the GCMS study. There was no effect on the growth pattern of E. coli by the aqueous extract. However, surprisingly, aqueous extract served as a growth stimulator for M. aureus. This was because both these fatty acids were absent in the aqueous extract and there was good amount of readily assimilable reducing sugars present in the aqueous extract.