ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF STEM BARK EXTRACT OF BOMBAX CEIBA COLLECTED LOCALLY FROM SOUTH PUNJAB AREA OF PAKISTAN.

Background: Ethnic medication systems have been used extensively by humans since their origin. Now a day, in the developing countries these systems are being used due to their effectiveness and affordability. Especially inhabitants of rural areas still rely on these systems as first line of treatment against diseased conditions. Till now, majority of medicines is derived from the natural origin particularly plants owing to their little side effects and cost effectiveness.

Materials and methods: In the present work, we evaluated antibacterial and antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of Bombax ceiba stem bark. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were also assessed in the extract. The antioxidant capacity was determined by DPPH, Nitric Oxide scavenging and reducing power activity. For antibacterial activity, Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi) and Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) were used.

Results: Phenolic content was 133.21±1.56 μg GAE/mg of extract while Flavonoid content was 997.93±2.14 μg QE/mg. Plant extract demonstrated strong antiradical activity with EC₅₀ 18.78 ± 0.69 and 23.62 ± 1.99fg/ml for Nitric Oxide and DPPH assay respectively while EC₅₀ in case of reducing power activity was 139.4 ± 0.98μg/ml. Plant extract displayed inhibitory effect against microbial growth with S. typhi as the most resistant strain and Staphylococcus aureus the most sensitive one.

Conclusion: This study revealed that Bombax ceiba of local origin has broad spectrum antibacterial activity and it can also provide defense against oxidative stress.