Antimicrobial Screening and Bioactivity Guided Fractionation of Acetone Extracts of Excoecaria agallocha

Antimicrobial and bioactivity guided fractionation of acetone extract of various parts of Excoecaria agallocha was studied. The cold and hot acetone extracts of leaves, stem and pneumatophores were prepared and tested against clinical isolates like Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Klebseilla pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Candida albicans. The leaves extract inhibited growth of most of the test microorganisms, in which best results were found against S.aureus and S. typhi. The leaves cold extract registered 1 mg/ml and 10 mg/ml MIC against S. aurerus and S. typhi respectively. Fungi C. albicans was found to be resistant to both leaves and stem cold extracts. Similarly in the hot extracts leaves inhibited growth of most of the test organisms. The best activity was found against S. aureus, S. typhi and C. albicans with MIC up to 5 mg/ml. Bioactivity guided fractionation study was carried out for target directed isolation and purification of active principles. To do this crude drug was fractionated in to petrolieum ether, water and acetone extracts. The best activity was noted in water (21 mm) and acetone (14 mm) fractions. This has indicated that potent bioactive principle is polar in nature and can be isolated from water fraction.