INHIBITORY ACTIVITY OF LEAF AND STEM EXTRACTS OF COSCINIUM FENESTRATUM (GAERTN.) COLEBR. AGAINST CLINICAL PATHOGENS

Medicinal plants have been estimated as the richest holdings of traditional medicines and from these plants, many types of modern medicines were developed. Coscinium fenestratum (Gaertn.) Colebr. belongs to the family Menispermaceae and is considered a critically endangered medicinal plant. Traditionally it is used for antimicrobial agents, diabetes mellitus, cancer, and arthritis. In this study in-vitro pharmacological activities of leaf and stem extracts of C. fenestratum were evaluated. The solvent extracts were screened for antimicrobial activity against some clinically isolated bacterial and fungal cultures using the disc diffusion method. The antioxidant activity of extracts were tested by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. The acetone extract of stem showed potential antimicrobial activity than other extracts. All the pathogens were inhibited at very low concentration, very specific Klepsiella pneumoniae was inhibited at 0.156mg/mL and Phialophora verrucosa was inhibited at 0.078mg/mL of the stem extract. The methanol extracts of stem showed the highest antioxidant activity of 99.59%. followed by stem extracts of ethyl acetate (99.02%), acetone (98.79%), and petroleum ether(90.55%) were showed. Hence, the present study clearly showed that the stem of C. fenestratum has higher antimicrobial and antioxidant properties capacity than the leaves.