Vol. 8, Issue 1 (2019)

Author(s):
Minakshi Rajput and Navneet

Abstract:
Infections related to hairs and scalp are one of the major current concerns as they are the main reason of hair damage and loss. In this behalf, many antimicrobial drugs available in market suffer from the resistance of pathogenic strains. Antimicrobial resistance stems from a number of factors, including inappropriate and excessive use of antimicrobial drugs. Therefore, the need for new antimicrobials have been dramatically increasing and medicinal plants are considered as one of the most promising sources for the discovery of new antimicrobial compounds. In this context, the current investigation aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity, MIC, and MBC/MFC of different seed extracts of Hydnocarpus laurifolia. Four different organic solvents including petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, methanol, and water were used to prepare the crude extracts. Antimicrobial activity and MIC of the extracts were determined by agar well diffusion method and broth microdilution method respectively. Among all the four solvents, ethyl acetate extract exhibited best antimicrobial potency against all the five selected pathogens i.e. Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Microsporum audouinii, Malassezia furfur, and Candida albicans with the zone of inhibitions ranging from 12.33±0.33 to 33.16±0.88 mm followed by methanol (10.33±0.33 to 19.33±0.33 mm) and petroleum ether (09.00±0.00 to 16.33±0.60 mm). Water extract did not show much potential against all the tested pathogens. MICs of the extracts ranged from 3.12-25 mg/ml for ethyl acetate, 12.5-100 mg/ml for petroleum ether and 6.25-100 mg/ml for methanol extract. MBCs of the different extracts ranged from 6.25-50 mg/ml for ethyl acetate, 50-200 mg/ml for petroleum ether and 12.5-200 mg/ml for methanol. Hence, from the results it can be confirmed that ethyl acetate extract showed lowest MICs and MBCs/MFCs values for all the tested microbial strains and zone of inhibitions greater than reference antimicrobial drugs. Therefore it can be concluded that organic crude extracts could be used as potential sources of antimicrobial agents other than conventional antibiotics or antifungals and they have perspective for further more inclusive studies.