Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activity of the Methanol Extract of Paederia foetida Linn. (Rubiaceae).

ABSTRACT

The antibacterial activities of n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate fractions of methanolic extracts of the whole plants Paederia foetida (family Rubiaceae) were screened against various pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Sarcina lutea, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella paratyphi , Salmonella typhi, Shigella boydii, Shigella dysenteriae, Vibrio mimicus, Vibrio parahemolyticus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Sacharomyces cerevacae by ‘disc diffusion method’. The methanol extract of the whole plants possesses no antimicrobial activity but the ethyl acetate, chloroform and n-hexane fractions exhibited moderate to less activity against some organisms tested compared with the standard antibiotic Kanamycin. Brine shrimp lethality bio-assay was done using brine shrimp Nauplii and dimethyl sulfoxide as a solvent for the methanol plant extracts of Paederia foetida. The LC50 value of methanol extract of the plant indicated that the cytotoxicity was very significant.