Abstract

Objective: To explore the in vitro antimicrobial potential of Hydrocotyle javanica (H. javanica) Thunb. against human pathogenic bacteria and to standardize purification protocol to harvest the active principle in large scale. Methods: In the present study, methanol and aqueous extracts of H. javanica were examined for in vitro antimicrobial potency against food poisoning, human pathogenic gastrointestinal and topical bacteria. Results: The methanol and aqueous extracts yielded bioactive crude extracts that have antibacterial potentiality against the human pathogenic bacteria tested. The chemical constituents of the crude extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, leucoanthocyanidins and cardiac glycosides in the methanol extract, and alkaloids, saponins and triterpenoids in the water extract. Further solvent fractionation and purification of the crude extracts showed that the active antibacterial compounds were alkaloid in dichloromethane fraction and phenols in methanol fraction with a very strong bactericidal activity as evidenced by SEM and lactate dehydrogenase study. Conclusions: Based on the findings it could be inferred that H. javanica would be a potential source for developing biotherapeutics against the human pathogenic bacteria. Further research work is going on in our laboratory to elucidate the structure of the active molecules.

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