Department of Chemistry

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Browsing Department of Chemistry by Subject "Antibacterial, antifungal"

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    Estimation of medicinal value of achyranthes aspera
    (University of Management and Technolog, 2017) Sajid, Fatima
    There are many plants reported in history which are used to cure various health problems. Herbal medicines occupy district position from the primitive period to present day. Achyranthes aspera is one of such medicinal plants and belongs to family Amaranthaceae. This plant A. aspera is commonly known as prickly chaff flower and almost all of its parts are used in traditional system of medicines. A. aspera is beneficial in the treatment of cancer, asthma, wound healing, hepatitis, malaria fever, cough, diabetes etc. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities from different extracts of seeds of A. aspera. Plant seeds were extracted with n-hexane, methanol and water. Phytochemical analysis of these extracts revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, alkaloids, steroids and saponins. For antibacterial activity, four bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus pseudomonas, Klebsiella pneumonia and Eschericlia coli were used. Methanol extract of the seeds of A. aspera showed strong inhibitory activity against gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pseudomonas) and weak inhibitory activity against gram negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia and Eschericlia coli). Water and n-hexane extracts exhibits less inhibitory activity than methanol towards these bacterial strains. For the antifungal activity Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used. Methanol extract of the seeds of A. aspera exhibited highest activity against both fungal strains while the n-hexane extract shows low activity as compared to methanol. Water extract of A. aspera seeds showed no activity against these fungal strains. In antioxidant activity, gallic acid was used as standard. Water extract of A. aspera showed highest absorbance (1.8707) and n-hexane extract showed lowest absorbance (1.3332) while methanol absorbance (1.7725) which was less than water extract. Results of antibacterial, antifungal and anti-oxidant activities proved that A. aspera has significant medicinal value.