IN VITRO ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIFUNGAL AND INSECTICIDAL ACTIVITIES OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT AND ITS FRACTIONATES OF SANCHEZIA SPECIOSA HOOK. F.

Abstract

The present study was carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial and insecticidal activities of plant Sanchezia speciosa Hook. F. extract against pathogenic bacteria and fungi by disc diffusion method and insect by surface film activity test. Fifteen different species of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, six species of fungi and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) insect were used for this screening. The result revealed that among the three fractions obtained by solvent- solvent partitioning, chloroform fraction was the best extractive for antibacterial and antifungal properties than other two fractions (pet-ether, ethyl acetate). The ranges of zone of inhibition were 8 ± 0.01 to 23 ± 0.02 mm using 500 $\mu$ g/disc. In addition the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of different solvent fractions tested were found to be in the range from 16 µg/ml to 128$\mu$ g/ml against fifteen pathogenic bacteria depending on isolates and extracting solvent. The insecticidal assay also indicated reasonable activity with 60 %, 40 % and 20 % mortality rate of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) at a dose of 50 mg/ml in 48 hours for chloroform, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extract respectively. This is the first report of antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal activities of the ethanolic extract and it’s fractionates (Chloroform, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether fraction) of Sanchezia speciosa Hook. F.