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Antibacterial Activity of Leucas Aspera Spreng

K. Ilango, S. Ramya and G. Gopinath

In this study, the whole plant of Leucas aspera was first defatted with hexane and discarded. Then the remaining marc was successively extracted with ethyl acetate and methanol and both the extract were concentrated under vacuum to yield corresponding ethyl acetate extract (EAE) and methanolic extract (ME). Extractive value was found to be 5.68% w/w and 9.73% w/w, respectively. Preliminary phytochemical screening reveals the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids and sterols in both the extracts. Both EAE and ME were screened for its antibacterial activity against four gram positive and six gram negative bacteria at different concentrations of 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 μg/disc by agar diffusion method. The activities of both the extracts were compared with standard antibiotics, by measuring the dimension of the zone of microbial growth (zone of inhibition) around the disc. Both the extracts exhibited a significant antibacterial activity against all the screened microorganisms.