Abstract

IN VITRO ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF β-SITOSTEROL IDENTIFIED IN PETROLEUM ETHER EXTRACT OF FRUITS OF HELICTERES ISORA LINN

Dinesh Kumar*, R. K. Singh and S. Farooq

Abstract

Helicteres isora L is belongs to family Sterculiacae is a sub-deciduous shrub or small tree. . The species is native to Asia and Australia. It occurs, throughout India, from Jamuna eastwards to Nepal, Bihar and Bengal and southern India and Andaman Islands.The fruits are ground and used in colic pain, gripping bowels and flatulence. The fruits are astringent, acrid, refrigerant, demulcent, constipating, stomachic, vulnerary, haemostatic and urinary astringent. They are useful in colic, flatulence, diarrhoea, dysentery, wounds; ulcers, haemorrhages, and diabetes .The fruit extract of possess weak anti-HIV (I) activity. The root and stem barks are considered to be expectorant, demulcent, astringent and anti-galactagogue and are useful in colic, scabies, emphysema, gastropathy, diabetes, diarrhoea and dysentery. The fruits were also found to possess significant antispasmodic activity. In the present investigation, β- sitosterol was extracted by using soxhlet extraction method from the fruits of Helicters isora Linn and characterized by IR, spectral analysis. Initial results obtained from thin layer chromatography (TLC) showed the presence of β- sitosterol in the fruits sample with the Rf value of 0.55. Further IR analysis of eluted bands showed the broad peak at 3426.3, 2936, 2832, 2366, and 1596.4 cm-1. Extracted β- sitosterol was further used to determine its antimicrobial activity by agar disk diffusion method. The antimicrobial activity ranged from 10 mm to 14 mm for E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. In comparison with standard antibacterial compound Ampicillin (20μg/ml), it was found that purified β- sitosterol (20μg/ml) has antimicrobial activity almost equivalent to the standard.

Keywords: Helicteres isora Linn, Fruit, Soxhelet extraction, IR, ?-sitosterol, Antimicrobial activity,