Antibacterial screening and qualitative phytochemical estimation of selected aquatic plants

Abstract

Ignoring little economic importance aquatic plants are considered as menace. Present investigation has been carried out on five different aquatic plants Hygrophila auriculata, Polygonum glabrum, Lemna gibba, Ludwigia adscendens and Najas marina for their probable potent antibacterial activity as well as active phytochemical components. Plants were collected from Pariyej and Kanewal lakes located surrounding Anand district, Gujarat, India. Crude extracts of all five plants and their different parts were prepared in water, hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol respectively. These extracts were assayed for the presence of antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method against three Gram positive (Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus) and one Gram negative (Proteus vulgaris) bacterial strains. Furthermore the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and qualitative phytochemical testing has been done for actively reported plants. Five crude extracts prepared in methanol showed best response. Out of 36 different crude extracts of above five plants and their parts in different solvents 15 extracts showed positive antibacterial activity. The phytochemical evaluation revealed that Hygrophila auriculata stem and leaf showed presence of alkaloids where as polygonum glabrum leaves showed presence of phenolic compounds, tannins and alkaloids.