Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
The plants of the genus
Excoecaria
(family: Euphorbiaceae) comprise nearly 40 species which
are distributed throughout the mangrove regions of tropical Africa, Asia and northwest
Australia. The most widely reported mangrove species is
Excoecaria agallocha
Linn. The latex
of this plant has been used as a purgative and abortifacient, as well as in the treatment of
ulcers, rheumatism, leprosy and paralysis. The leaves and latex of this tree have been used
as fish poison in India, New Caledonia and Malaysia. The bark and wood is used in
Thailand as a remedy for flatulence. Recently, much attention has been paid to
Excoecaria
species due to their cytotoxic and anti-HIV activities [3].
In this study we investigated the antimicrobial and antioxidant potential of methanol extract
of
Excoecaria agallocha
Linn leaf. The DPPH and the oxidative DNA damage preventive
activity and antioxidant potential of the crude methanol extract and sequential hexane,
water and methanol extract of
E. agallocha
Linn leaf were also investigated. We found that
water extract of
E. agallocha
Linn was more effective and
could scavenge reactive oxygen
species (ROS) thus preventing DNA strand scission by •OH generated in the Fenton
reaction on pCAMBIA1301 DNA.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Plant materials and extraction procedure
The plants of
E. agallocha
were collected during the month of November 2009 from
Ayiramthengu located near Alleppy in Kerala, India, at an average temperature of 28 - 34
°C. Collected plant material was dried in the shade and the leaves were then separated from
the stem and pulverized to a fine powder in a grinder. The powdered leaf (10 g) was
extracted sequentially with 100 ml of hexane and methanol by Soxhlet at a temperature not
exceeding the boiling point of the solvent. To hexane extract water was added and separated
in a separating funnel. The extracts were filtered using Whatman No. 1 filter paper and then
concentrated in a vacuum at 40 °C using a rotary evaporator. The residues obtained were
stored in a deep freezer at
-
80 °C until use.
3. Determination of antimicrobial activities
3.1. Microorganisms
Microbial cultures
Bacillus subtilis
(MTCC- 441),
S. pyogenes
(MTCC- 442),
E. coli
(MTCC -
443),
Salmonella typhi
(MTCC - 733),
K. pneumoniae
(MTCC - 109),
S. marcescens
(MTCC -*97),
Vibrio cholerae
(01) and
Vibrio cholerae
(08)
belonging to bacterial species and
Candida albicans
(MTCC - 3017) yeast were used in this study. Microorganisms were provided by IMTech,
Chandigarh, India.
3.2. Antimicrobial activity by Disc-diffusion assay
The dried plant extracts were dissolved in the same solvent (methanol and distilled water)
to a final concentration of 100 mg/ml and sterilized by filtration by 0.45 m Millipore filters.
