SI VER TY NI

ASSAM U
LCHAR SI

Assam University Journal of Science & Technology : Biological and Environmental Sciences Vol. 7 Number I 76-78, 2011

ISSN 0975-2773

Antimicrobial Activity of Melastoma malabathricum L.

Manabendra Dutta Choudhury, *Deepa Nath, Anupam Das Talukdar Ethnobotany and Medicinal plant research laboratory, Deptt. of life Science, Assam University, Silchar-788011 *Corresponding author email: dipa.nath@gmail.com

Abstract
Present piece of work was designed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of methanolic and acetone extract of M. malabathricum L. Methanolic and acetone extracts of leaves have been prepared and tested against test bacteria viz. Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sp. and E. coli by disc diffusion method. The result showed significant zone of inhibition by both the extracts against all three test bacteria, which reflects the potentiality of methanolic and acetone extract of leaves of M. malabathricum as antimicrobial agent. Key Words: Melastoma malabathricum, antimicrobial, methanolic extract, acetone extract Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sp. E. coli.

Introduction It is the demand of time to develop new drugs as many new diseases are continuously emerging and causative agents for many old diseases become drug resistant. Moreover, many synthetic drugs are withdrawn years after their introduction into the market because of adverse side effects. The metabolites discovered in medicinal plants may avoid the side effect of synthetic drugs . Melastoma malabathricum L. (Melastomataceae) locally known as LUTKI is very well known medicinal plant used by peoples of different community all over the world. The leaves of Melastoma malabathricum L. is used traditionally to treat diarrohea, dysentery, leucorrhoea, hemorrhage infection during confinement, toothache, flatulence, sore legs and thrush. The ethanolic extracts of Melastoma malabathricum L. was found to have antinociceptive effect. (Sulaiman et al., 2004). The antimicrobial activity of crude extracts of three Miconia species of Melastomataceae family (M. albicans, M. rubiginosa and M. stenostachya) was studied by Andrea et al., (2003). The antimicrobial activity was tested against eleven selected microorganisms: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Shigella flexneri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella sp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus agalactiae and Candida albicans and they reported efficacy of ethanol extracts of Miconia albicans and Miconia rubiginosa as most active. The analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of M. albicans have been established by Vasconcelos et al., (2006). Methanol extracts of Memecylon malabaricum leaves has shown activity against bacteria both Gram (+) and Gram (-), and fungi. (Hullatti et al., 2004). Rodrigues et al., (2008) reported the antimicrobial activity of ethanol and chloroform extracts of the leaves of Miconia species (Miconia cabucu, Miconia rubiginosa, and Miconia stenostachya) against Bacillus subtilis,Candida albicans, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis. The wound healing and antibacterial activities of the extract of Dissotis theifolia (Melastomataceae) stem against Staphylococcus aureus and

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Antimicrobial Activity of Melastoma.......

Pseudomonas aeruginosa was reported by Odimegwu et al., (2008). Sunilson et al., (2008) in their paper entitled Antibacterial and wound healing activities of Melastoma malabathricum reported the antibacterial efficacy of Melastoma malabathricum L. against S. aureus and P. aureginosa. Aqueous extracts of leaves of Melastoma malabathricum has been reported to have medicinal properties and were tested for their antimicrobial activity against gram (+ve) and gram (-ve) human pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 1144, Bacillus licheniformis MTCC 7425, Bacillus brevis MTCC 7404, Bacillus subtilis MTCC 7164, Staphylococcus epidermidis MTCC 3615, Streptococcus aureus (Lab. isolate), Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 1034, Escherichia coli MTCC 1089, Vibrio cholerae (Lab. isolate), Shigella flexneri (Lab. isolate) and one fungal species Candida krusei (Lab. isolate) (Thatoi et al., 2008). Subcutaneous administration of extracts of Melastoma malabathricum L. leaves in experimental animals shows antinociceptive, anti inflammatory, antipyretic properties. Significant antinociceptive, anti inflammatory, antipyretic activities were observed in concentration independent manner and concentration of 10% (V\V) of the water extracts (Zakaria et al., 2006). Materials and Methods The current study was carried out to determine the in vitro antimicrobial activity of methanol and acetone extracts of leaves of M. malabathricum L. Leaves of M. malbathricum L. were collected from Assam University , Silchar, campus. Vaucher specimen has been deposited to the Herbarium of Assam University, Silchar. The leaves were shade dried, powdered and extracted at room temperature with acetone and methanol (Merck Limited, Mumbai, India). Two gram (+ve) and one gram (-ve) bacteria were collected from of Silchar Medical College. Antimicrobial activity of the crude extract was determined by disc diffusion method (Vincent et al., 1994) on Nutrient Agar Medium (Hi Media Lab Pvt .ltd. Mumbai, India). The microbial strains were inoculated into

petriplates .After the inoculation , the petriplates were incubated at 370C. Antimicrobial activity was determined by measuring the zone of inhibition produced around the disc in millimeter. The whole set of experiment was repeated in triplicate. Results and Discussion The results indicated that the methanolic and acetone extract from Melastoma malabathricum L. has potential antimicrobial activity against all three types of test bacteria viz., E. coli, Streptococcus sp. & Staphylococcus aureus. Maximum zone of inhibition was recorded for Staphylococcus aureus (13.06 mm.). E. coli & Streptococcus also showed remarkable zone of inhibition. Table -1: Methanolic and acetone extracts of Melastoma malabathricum L. Leaves showing zone of inhibition against pathogenic bacteria.

Microorganism Methanol extracts

E.coli 11.14o.441928 Streptococcus sp 12.330.142753 S. aureus 13.060.085444

Acetone extracts
9.36 0.416333 8.66 0.404145 10.86 0.650641

Values are zone of Inhibition and an average of triplicate(Mean S.D) The antibacterial activity of crude methanolic and acetone extract of leaves were studied using three different test organism viz., E. coli, Streptococcus sp. & Staphylococcus aureus. The crude extracts showed significant antibacterial activity as compared to standard antibiotic. Critical survey of literature reflects the efficiency of plants of Melastomataceae family having potential antimicrobial ability. Various species of Miconia belonging to Melastomataceae family showed significant antimicrobial activity against different Gram (+ve ) and Gram (-Ve) bacteria (Andrea et al., 2003, Hullatti et al., 2004, Vasconcelos et al., 2006, Rodrigues et al., 2008, Odimegwu et al., 2008). Recently Sunilson et al., (2008) reported the antibacterial efficiency of Melastoma malabathricum L. against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aureginosa . In the present state of affairs, methanolic and acetone extracts of leaves of Melastoma malabathricum

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Antimicrobial Activity of Melastoma.......

L. have produced significant zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus (13.06 mm) which confirms the potentiality of the plants as antimicrobial agent. In addition to that methanolic and acetone extracts of leaves also showed significant antibacterial activity against E. Coli and Streptococcus sp. In the present investigation which seems to be the first report of activity of the plant (Methanolic and acetone extract) against these two bacteria. Thatoi et al., (2008) in their paper entitled Antimicrobial Activity and Ethnomedicinal Uses of Some Medicinal Plants from Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Orissa also reported the

antimicrobial efficiency of aqueous extracts of leaves of M. malabathricum L. against some gram (+ ve ) and gram (-ve) human pathogenic bacteria Thus, the findings of the present works confirms the potentiality of this plants as a source of future bioactive compounds. Conclusion Bioactivity evaluation of methanolic and acetone extracts of leaves of M. malabathricum L. showed significant zone of inhibition against Streptococcus aureus, E.coli and Strepcoccus sp. This information provides a valuable clue for isolation of bioactive compound from the plant.

References
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