Screening of some selected bryophytes for antimicrobial activity
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Date
2009-06
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Mounting pressure of teeming population and shrinking land resources have necessitated the production of more food per unit area. However the indiscriminate use of synthetic pesticides for meeting the increasing food demand and created several problems of pest resistance, food contamination by toxic residues and environmental pollution. To reduce the dependence on synthetic pesticides there is an urgent need to search for plant based natural products. In the present study the different organic and aqueous extracts of four bryophytes- Marchantia polymorpha, Plagiochasma appendiculatum, Dicranum undulatum and Isopterygium elegans have been investigated in vitro for their bioactivity against four different fungal pathogens, viz., Sclerotium rolfsii, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum and Tilletia indica and five different bacteria viz., Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, Salmonella enterica, Pasteurella multocida, Escherichia coli O157 and Melissococcus plutonius (all G-ve). Disc diffusion and microbroth techniques were used for evaluation of antimicrobial activity of the extracts. All the microorganisms were found to be sensitive against at least one of the organic extracts while all the aqueous extracts were found to be ineffective. Organic extracts of all four bryophytes (M. polymorpha, P. appendiculatum, D. undulatum and I. elegans) were effective against F. oxysporum and T. indica. Organic extracts of all bryophytes except, I. elegans, were effective for all the tested bacterial pathogens. These results clearly indicate that bryophytes may prove to be a very good and new source of antimicrobial agents and can encourage to develop a novel broad spectrum antimicrobial herbal formula in future.