ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF DASAMOOLA – AN AYURVEDIC DRUG
*M. Linga Rao, N. Savithramma
Abstract
Dasamoola is a combination of ten medicinal plants of which
principally roots are employed in compounding of Ayurveda
medicine. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the
antimicrobial efficacy of the aqueous extract of Dasamoola.
Antimicrobial activity was carried out by using disc diffusion method.
The results showed varying degree of inhibitory potential against all
the tested bacteria and fungi. Maximum inhibitory activity against
Pseudomonas (33.332.8), followed by Bacillus (22.32.51),
Staphylococcus (21.662.88) and Proteus (19.331.15); and least
activity was observed against E.coli (7.31.15). The aqueous extract
was very much effective against Rhizopus (35.61.15) and
Aspergillus niger (30.61.15); and less effective against Curvularia
(9.31.15), Aspergillus flavus (9.31.15) and Fusarium (8.30.57) at
different concentrations (250-1000 mg/ml). The antimicrobial activity of aqueous extract of
Dasamoola may be due to their diversified phytochemical contents, which may act
synergistically to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Further studies are carried out to
isolate and characterize the bioactive compounds responsible for the microbial strains which got resistance to traditional drugs.
Keywords: Dasamoola, Antimicrobial activity, Ayurvedic drug.
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