EXPLORING THE ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ELAEOCARPUS FLORIBUNDUS LEAVES

Background: Medicinal plants are store house of phytochemicals for treatment of various diseases from the ancient time to present day, which lead to the discovery of pharmakon. Aim: The aim of the present study is to verify the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of the ethanolic, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts of the Elaeocarpus floribundus leaves. Method: Antibacterial activity was evaluated by disc diffusion method using kanamycin as standard against five Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus subtilis and Sarcina luteae) and five Gram negative (Escherichia coli, Vibrio parahemolyticus, Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella paratyphi and Pseudomonus aeruginosa) bacteria. Antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined by using DPPH as free radical and ascorbic acid as standard. Results: The ethanol extract showed over all good activity against all microorganisms compared to chloroform and pet ether extract. The ethanol extract showed significant activity against S. aureus, B. subtilis, S. luteae, S. dysenteriae, P. aeruginosa and E. coli with zone of inhibition of 22mm, 20mm, 20mm, 18mm, 18mm, and 16mm respectively. The chloroform extract also showed good activity against S. aureus and B. cereus with 10mm zone of inhibition. The pet ether extract showed good activity only against S. aureus with zone of inhibition 14mm. Both chloroform and petroleum ether extract showed moderate activity against other bacteria. Among the three extracts, ethanol and petroleum ether extracts showed significant antioxidant activity with IC50 value of 45.23 and 60.18 ?g/ml compared to ascorbic acid 41.78?g/ml. Conclusion: This study suggested that Elaeocarpus floribundus leaves have promising antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Keywords: Pharmakon, Elaeocarpus floribundus, antibacterial activity, antioxidant, DPPH.