INTRODUCTION:

Every country has traditional cures for its diseases. From homely recipies to complicated modes of treatment are found to have evolved depending on the geographical position of the country, its culture, mineral resources and such other factors ¹. Through the ages India’s myriad herbs have played a great role in the accumulation of ancient medicinal knowledge. The ancients come to posses an intimate knowledge of the properties of our plant life. The World Health Organization records the fact that 80% of the worlds population still relives on plant medicine. The plant Clerodentrum viscosum vent . (Family Verbenacease), which is very popular as a mdicinal plant in the ancient text of ethnic mdicine. The synonym of Clerodendrum viscosum is Clerodendrum infortunatum auct.non Linn. This plant is distributed throughout india as undergrowth in forest up to 1600m and has weed along toad sides and wasty lands ^2,3. Clerodendrum viscosum is a large gregarious tawny villous shrub up to 9.0m in height with blundly quadragular branhlets; the leaves are large, 10-25 cm/9-20cm, ovate, acuminate, entire or denticulate, base cordate, hairy on both sides; flowers are white, tinged with pink in terminal panicles; fruits are globose drupes, seated on the enlarged pink calyx containing 1-4 pyrenes; This plant is propagated using seed and by vegetative methods. The leaves are bitter, acrid, thermogenic, laxative, cholagogue, antiseptic, demulcent, anti-inflammatory, depurative, vermifuge, expectorant, antipyretic and tonic, and are useful in vitiated condition of kapha, helminthiasis, ascarides, abscesses, tumours, leprosy, skin diseases, indolent ulcers, cough, bronchitis, inflammations, intermittent fevers, malarial fever, general debility and proctoptosis^4,5. A detailed review of literature afforded no information on the antimicrobial activity of the plant. It was therefore worthwhile to investigate the antimicrobial activity of Clerodendrum viscosum.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Preparation of Extracts:

The leaves of Clerodendrum viscosum was collected from Kodankara area (Trivandrum), during the month of March 2007. The dried leaves were pulverized to a coarse powder, sieved through no: 10 sieve. The plant was identified by Mr. Jayakumar.M. Senior Research Officer, Pharmacognosy unit, Poojapura, Trivandrum. Identification was done by the botanist by its characteristic pharmacognostic features voucher specimen (AA-01/07) were preserved in Department of Pharmacology, ACPS, Pariyaram Medical College, Kannur, Kerala for future references. The dried powdered plant leaves were successfully extracted with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and methanol by Soxhlet extraction method . The dried extracts was taken for the study. A semisolid bown crude extract of plant so obtained was tested for its antimicrobial activity against various bacterial strain. These bacterial strain were obtained from National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms ( NCIM ), Pune, India.

The extractive value was found to be 4.1% (petroleum ether), 6.2% (chloroform), 10.3% (ethanol), 8.4% (methanol) with respect to the dry starting powdered leaf material. These extracts were subjected for phytochemical evaluation.

Test microorganisms: Six clinical strains Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyrogenes, Escherichia coli, Bacillus substills, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi were used for assessing the antibacterial activity with standard Ampicillin (10 mg /ml). Three fungal strains C. albicans, A flavus and A. niger were used for antifungal activity determination using Miconazole (10 ig/ml) as standard ⁶.

Antimicrobial activity: Antimicrobial activity was determined by the agar cup plate method. Nutrient agar( Himedia ) and sabourd dextrose broth (Himedia) were used as medium for bacterial and fungal strains respectively.

Table 1: Phytochemical screening of Cleodendrum viscosum leaf extracts.

Extracts	Alkaloids	Tannins	Saponins	Glycosides
Petroleum ether	+	_	_	_
Chloroform	+	_	_	_
Ethanol	+	+	+	+
Methanol	+	+	+	+

(+): Present. (-): Absent.

Table 2: Antibacterial activity of extract of Clerodentrum viscosum

Plant Material

Concentration

(mg /ml)

Staphylo coccus aureus

Escherichia coli

Bacillus substills

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Salmonella typhi

Streptococcus pyrogenes

Petroleum ether

100

Chloroform

100

Ethanol

100

Methanol

100

Standard Ampicillin

10µg/ml

*Values indicate zone of inhibition (diameter in mm).(-) : No activity.

Table3:Antifungal activity of extract of Clerodentrum viscosum.

Plant Material

Concentration (mg/ml)

C. albicans

A. niger

A .flavus

Petroleum ether

100

Chloroform

100

Ethanol

100

Methanol

100

Standard Miconazole

10 µ g /ml

*Values indicate zone of inhibition (diameter in mm).

Control experiment was carried out under the similar condition by using Ampicillin and Miconazole as standard for antibacterial (10ug /ml) and antifungal activity ⁷ . The petridishes were incubated at 37⁰C ( 24 hours )for bacteria and 25 ⁰C (48 hours) for fungal strains ⁸.The assessment for antimicrobial activity was based on the measurement of diameter of inhibition zone formed by dissolving the plant material extract in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and standard drugs also.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

The Phytochemical screening subjected to detect the presence of some secondary plant metabolites following standard procedures as shown in Tab 1.

Ethanol extract of Clerodentrum viscosum exhibits significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bascillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Streptococcus pyrogens and Salmonella typhi. Methanol extract of Clerodentrum viscosum leaves have shown mild to moderate antibacterial activity against all the pathogenic strains except Escherichia coli and streptococcus pyrogenes whereas petroleum ether and chloroform extract of Clerodentrum viscosum leaves have shown mild or no antibacterial activity against the pathogens used for the study as shown in Tab 2. Ethanol and methanol extract of Clerodentrum viscosum leaves have shown mild to moderate antifungal activity against the tested fungal strains as shown in Tab 3.

REFERENCES:

1. Goodman and Gilman. The Pharmacological basis of Therapeutics, 6^th edition, Millan Publishing Company, New York : 1982.

2. Orient Longman, Indian Medicinal Plants. Aryvaidyasala Publications.1986.

3. Kirtikar K R Indian Medical Plants. Allahabad Leader Press. 1993.

4. Khare C P. encyclopedia of Indian Medicinal Plant . Springer 2004.

5. Nadkarni KM. Indian Materia Medica. Dootapapeshwar Prakasan Ltd, Bombay. 1954 .

6. Cruckshank R, Deguid JO, Mamlon B.P and Swain R H . Medicinal Microbiology. Churchhill Living Stone Publication, New York. 1975.

7. Sharma Chandra Shekhar , Rohilla Ruby, Gaur kalpeesh, Neema R.K, Nagar Kamala R, Sharma Mahesh C and Meyyanathan S.N. Phytochemical and antimicrobial properties of Gossypium herbaceum linn. Adv.Pharmacol.Toxicol, 2008.9 (1) : 153-156.

8. Cuppucino JG and Sherman. N. Micribiology a Laboratory Mannual. Addison Wesley Langman Inc, California. 1999.

Received on 29.01.2009 Modified on 05.04.2009

Research J. Pharm. and Tech.2 (3): July-Sept. 2009,;Page 599-600