Abstract

EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF BARLERIA CRISTATA- AN INVITRO STUDY

Darling Chellathai, Punnagai Gunasekaran, Aparna Mani

Abstract

Infectious Diseases constitute a major proportion of the Global Disease burden and continues to be the foremost leading cause of mortality in the developing countries.[1] Over the past few decades tremendous advancements in the scientific field have led to the development of many antibiotics. However most of the available drugs have their own drawbacks in terms of adverse effects and high cost. The emergence of antibiotic resistance also poses a major threat to the patients and the treating physicians.[2] Thus, strategies to develop better and newer antibiotics is the need of the hour. This has forced the attention of researchers towards plant products. Plants have long since been used as potential sources of many drugs including antibiotics. Several studies have indicated that plants have active metabolites such as alkaloids, flavanoids, tannins and phenolic compounds which show good antimicrobial activity.[3,4,5] Plant derived drugs are generally well tolerated, with minimal side effects and can be sourced more easily.[6] Barleria cristata is an ornamental shrub belonging to Acanthaceae family widely found in Central and South India. It has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for treating various disorders including anaemia, toothache, cough, fever, asthma, bronchitis and diabetes.[7] The roots and leaves were found to have anti inflammatory properties and used for swelling and local inflammation.[8] Earlier studies have reported antibacterial activity of leaf extract of B.cristata mainly against gram positive organisms.[9,10] The current research focuses on the antibacterial activity against commonly occurring gram negative organisms and also to evaluate the anti fungal activity of the ethanolic leaf extracts of B. cristata.

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