Abstract
Research on medicinal plants are important to Nepal because most of its rural population relies on it as mode of medicine. Medicinal plants namely Swertia chirayita and Dendrobium amoenum were collected from mid hills of Nepal. The present study was undertaken to find the antimicrobial activity, phytochemical presence and their cytotoxicity in different extraction medium. The percentage yield from the plants were highest in warm methanol extraction with 12.6%, followed by ethyl acetate and lowest was for cold methanol. Plant extract showed the presence of antioxidants like alkaloid, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannin, glycosides. The Brine Shrimp Bioassay of methanol and ethyl acetate extract showed cytotoxicity. Chiraito extract showed LC50 of 199 ppm for Dhunche sample, 128.82 ppm for Daman sample and 131.82 ppm of Illam sample. The antibacterial activity of methanol extract of Chiraito and Dendrobium amoenum showed significant bioactivity by inhibiting growth of microbial species selected for the test. The zone of inhibition shown by the extracts was comparable to the standard antibiotics. Similarly, methanol extract of Chiraito also showed significant antifungal activity with the zone of inhibition comparable to amphotericin.Nepal Journal of Biotechnology. Dec. 2015 Vol. 3, No. 1: 48-54
Highlights
Medicinal plants are being used as Ayurveda or traditional medicine in Nepal by local tribes and in most of the rural areas of the Indian subcontinent
In the middle of the Himalayan belt which extends from Myanmar in the East to Karakorum in the West, possess vast diversity of plants because of its geographical distribution [1,2,3,4]. Some of these Medicinal plants are used in indigenous rural remedies, homoeopathic medicines, and allopathic pharmacopeia [5,6,7,8]
Among all those plants Swertia chirayita and Dendrobium amoenum is the focus of this research
Summary
Medicinal plants are being used as Ayurveda or traditional medicine in Nepal by local tribes and in most of the rural areas of the Indian subcontinent. Among all those plants Swertia chirayita and Dendrobium amoenum is the focus of this research. Dendrobium contains about 1,200 species and is known as orchid [10] This genus occurs in diverse habitats throughout much of South and East Asia, stretching to Oceania and some of Pacific islands. This plant is commonly distributed between 660 m to 2000 m temperate forest of Himalayan region and grow in little light exposure [11,12].
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