ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIFUNGAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ANDROGRAPHIS PANICULATA NEES. LEAVES

Andrographis paniculata Nees. is an important medicinal plant in India which is used in traditional medicine. Although, its antibacterial property has been shown by some researchers, there are very few studies showing its antioxidant activity and there are no reports of its antifungal activity against dermatophytes. So, in this study we evaluate the antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities of A. paniculata leaves in different solvent exts. A. paniculata leaves were extd. with chloroform, hexane, methanol, ethanol and water sep. and phenol and flavonoid contents were estd. in these exts. The antibacterial and antifungal activity studies were carried out by using disk diffusion method and mycelial dry wt. method resp. Ferrous reducing antioxidant power assay, 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, lipid peroxidn. inhibitory activity and superoxide scavenging activity were used for in vitro antioxidant activity studies. A. panicualta ethanol leaf ext. showed the highest phenol and flavonoid contents of 64.82 mg/g and 0.87 mg/g resp. The highest antibacterial activity was recorded in the ethanol ext. with Min. Inhibitory Concn. (MIC) values of 0.75 mg/mL for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 1.0 mg/mL for Staphylococcus aureus. MIC values of 1.75 mg/mL and 3.0 mg/mL were recorded for Epidermophyton floccosum and Trichophyton rubrum in ethanol ext. Antioxidant activity was more in ethanol ext., which showed Inhibitory Concn. (IC50) values of 0.5 mg/mL, 0.1 mg/mL and 0.9 mg/mL for DPPH scavenging activity, lipid peroxidn. inhibitory activity and superoxide scavenging activity resp. The result indicates that ethanolic leaf ext. of A. paniculata shows potent antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities.