Author(s):

Soumya KK and Padma Nambisan

Abstract: Herbal medicines have attracted much public attention due to its structurally diverse bioactive compounds which have promising antibacterial, antifungal, antitumor and cytotoxic activities and Simarouba glauca is a medicinal plant belonging to the family Simaroubaceae. The bark extract of S. glauca is eminent for pharmacological uses such as antidiarrhea, antidysenteric, antimalaria haemostatic, antihelmentic, antiparasitic and antipyretic. But their leaves also can be used as medicine. In this study we show that this plant is highly efficient against pathogenic strains of bacteria.Dried plant leaves of the plant were extracted with various non-polar and polar solvents including hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, 70% acetone, methanol and water. The plant extracts were subjected to preliminary phytochemical analysis. Then the extracts were used for the antibacterial studies using disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). With the MIC concentration the scanning electron microscopy was done to see whether the cells destroying or reducing it’s number. Phenolic content of extracts was estimated and methanol extract showed the highest of 95.32+1.6 mg/g. The antioxidant activity of the samples was evaluated by free radical scavenging assay and the IC50 of methanol extract was found to be 10 µg. Zone of inhibition of plant extract were tested against pathogenic strains like Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, and Proteus vulgaris. The minimum inhibitory concentration of each extract was determined for each sample. Scanning electron microscopy of MIC concentration was performed with each bacteria mentioned above to confirm the destruction of the bacterial cell wall as well as the cytoplasm. S. glauca methanolic extract could replace the conventional drugs used as antibacterial drugs.

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