In vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Leaf and Rhizome Extracts of Hedychium flavescens

Author: Anandi A.A., Francis S., Britto S.J. and Gideon V.A.

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Abstract

Hedychium flavescens or yellow ginger has innumerable medicinal uses in folk medicine mostly for the treatment of respiratory, skin, digestive, bone and joint diseases. We are reporting for the first time the antibacterial and antifungal activities of chloroform, acetone, methanol and aqueous extracts from the leaves and rhizomes of H. flavescens. Antimicrobial drugs are associated with side effects like hives, gastrointestinal effects, fatigue, secondary infections and may also lead to antibiotic resistance. Some plants which are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites have traditionally been used as antimicrobial agents and they also show minimal to no side effects. In this study it was seen that the leaf extracts showed better antimicrobial activity than the rhizome extracts. The leaf extracts showed strong activity against Escherichia coli, Propionibacterium acnes, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus pyogenes, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tubigenesis and Sporothrix schenckii. The rhizome extract showed significant activity against Bacillus subtilis, Propionibacterium acnes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus ustus, Cryptococcus neoformans and Sporothrix schenckii. The extracts showed significant inhibition against E. coli as well as P. aeruginosa, thus indicating their broad spectrum of activity. Acetone, chloroform and methanol extracts of both leaf and rhizome showed better results compared to the aqueous extract. This study proves that the leaf and rhizome extracts of H. flavescens have significant antimicrobial activity and can thus be used as an antimicrobial agent.

Keywords

Hedychium flavescens, Antimicrobial , Antibacterial, Antifungal, Zingiberaceae, Medicinal plant

Conclusion

Antibiotics, the antidote to various bacterial infections, have greatly enhanced the quality of human life. But over the past few years, antibiotics have become less effective against certain diseases due to emergence of drug resistant bacteria. Besides some antibiotics can cause severe side effects. However, plant products have been used as powerful remedy against pathogenic microbes since ancient times. Therefore, antimicrobial screening of plant extracts and testing their antimicrobial capacity would lead to safer and effective antimicrobial drug discovery. Earlier studies on Hedychium flavescens have reported that the essential oil of the rhizomes had high content of monoterpene β-pinene and the oil showed strong activity against bacteria Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis and fungi Candida albicans and C. glabrata (Sabulal et al., 2007; Suksathan et al., 2013). In our investigation, for the first time we have documented the in vitro antimicrobial activity of the leaf and rhizome extracts of Hedychium flavescens. This study proves that the leaf and rhizome extracts of H. flavescens have significant antimicrobial activity especially the acetone, chloroform and methanol extracts. The extracts showed significant inhibition against E. coli as well as P. aeruginosa thus indicating their broad spectrum of activity. This study thus reveals that H. flavescens may serve as a natural alternative source of medicine for the treatment of microbial infections. The bacteria and fungi used in this study typically cause respiratory, skin, digestive, bone and joint infections. On this account, this report validates the traditional use of Hedychium flavescens for the treatment of tonsillitis (Staples and Herbst 2005), bronchitis, throat swellings, chest congestion, cough, asthma, abdominal swellings, various skin infections (Singh and Sharma 2018), stomach ache (Nurainas et al., 2021), gastritis (Kom et al., 2018), infected nostrils and arthritis (Raphael and Madhavan 2013).

References

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How to cite this article

Anandi A.A., Francis S., Britto S.J. and Gideon V.A. (2023). In vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Leaf and Rhizome Extracts of Hedychium flavescens. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(4): 626-631.