Antibacterial Activity Directed Fractionation of Woodfordia fruticosa Kurz. Leaves

Background: Woodfordia fruticosa is used traditionally as antidysenteric compound for fodder animals. Stem and flower extracts are previously flourished for their antibacterial activity. Leaves are also equally important, which are preliminary screened for their bioactive components in present study. Objective: Evaluation of antibacterial activity of leaves of W. fruticosa and detection of their active compound. Methods: Different solvent i.e. petroleum ether, chloroform, diethyl ether and acetone extracts were studied against four bacterial strains using disc diffusion assay. Most potenz extract was chromatogram on preparative TLC. Further individual separated spots were back checked for their activity. Probable constituents of most active fraction were detected on GC-MS. Results: All four extracts exhibited antibacterial activity. The acetone extract showed highest inhibition against Bacillus subtilis NCIM 2921. The 80g and 120 g of acetone extract exhibit comparable antimicrobial activity against the four different bacteria studied. Amongst the four different spots on TLC chromatogram three of them had activity against B. subtilis NCIM 2921. The most active fraction was collected by preparative TLC and used for GC-MS, which exhibited two peaks. Conclusion: Extracts of petroleum ether, chloroform, diethyl ether and acetone were found to be effective against all the srains studied. The fraction of acetone extract, which is more active, constitutes two different compounds, in which both or one of them is responsible for antibacterial activity.