Abstract

India is a trove house of an ample variety of medicinal plants. Some species are observed wild, while a number of species have been domesticated by the farmers. India is known to be the richest archive of medicinal plants amongst the ancient civilizations, about 8,000 herbal remedies have been summarised in Ayurveda. The recorded medicinal plants in Rigveda (5000 BC) – 67species, Yajurveda 81 species, Atharvaveda(4500-2500 BC) 290 species, Charak Samhita (700 BC) and Sushrut Samhita (200 BC) had detailed the properties and uses of 1100 and 1270 species respectively, in synthesizing of drugs and these are still used in the classical formulations, in the Ayurvedic system of medicine. It has been approximated that, in India, plant drugs enact as much as 80% of the total drugs. India is the world’s 12th biodiversity centre with the ubiety of over 45000 different plant species. In India, medications of herbal origin have been used in customary medicines such as Unani and Ayurveda. Traditional systems of medicine keep on to be broadly practised on plentiful accounts. Many of the green plants synthesizes and put up a variety of biochemical products, many of which are extractable and employed as chemical feed stocks or as raw material for distinct scientific investigations. In accord with this information, Piper betel L. (Green gold of India), which is commonly considered as a traditional medicinal plant, was choosen for the study. Solvent extracts of Mokkathotakalli leaves of Piper betel L. Cv. Kapoori made in ether, chloroform, ethanol and methanol, tested for antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Corynebacterium diphtheria, Xanthomonas citrovorum, Proteus vulgaris and Staphylococcus aureus. The ether extracts displayed high activity against tested bacteria even at lowest concentrations. Among the solvent extracts, ether extracts of Mokkathotakalli of leaves of Piper betel L. Cv. Kapoori, exhibited leading antibacterial activity compared with other solvent extracts.

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