RESUMO
Aims: In vitro studies are highly instrumental in selecting a drug for a particular disease and also in getting the preliminary evidence to proceed for further In vivo pharmacological research. Hence, the study is designed to screen and identify the therapeutic suitability of this plant extract for the treatment of a particular disease. And to find out the presence of phytochemicals and antimicrobial activity of leaf callus cultures of Biophytum sensitivum Linn. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Botany and Microbiology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Guntur 522510, India during June 2010 to Dec 2010. Methodology: Here we induced the callus from the leaf explants of this species on Murashige and Skoog basal medium supplemented with various concentrations of BA and NAA. BA 1.0 mg/l with NAA 1.0mg/l is the best concentration for optimal results. The callus was extracted sequentially with hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol for 24h by using Soxhlet apparatus. These extracts were used to investigate the presence of phytochemicals which was performed according to the Aiyelaagbe and Osamudiamen [29] and Egwaikhide et al. [30] methods. The mean values were statistically analyzed with the MINITAB 14 by the general one way (un stacked) analysis of variance (ANOVA) to find out the most effective extracts Results: The qualitative phytochemical analysis of various solvent extracts showed the presence of phytochemicals viz., Terpenoids, phenols, flavonoids, saponins, quinones and phenols. All the extracts except hexane showed highest zone of inhibition against gram positive and gram negative bacteria (4.46-22.9mm) as well as fungi (7.64-144.4mm) by agar well diffusion method at 100ppm concentrations. The results of present study indicate that the callus of this plant is a potential source of antimicrobial agents and drugs and need to be investigated further. Conclusion: From the present study, it is evident that, the antibacterial active constituent of Biophytum sensitivum is having a constant expression pattern over different pathogens. This plant leaf callus can be further subjected to enhancement and isolation of the therapeutic antimicrobials and carry out further pharmacological evaluation.