Screening and bioactivity measurement of high altitude medicinal plants of Nepal

Abstract

Screening and Bioactivity Measurement of High altitude Medicinal Plants of Nepal Ten different plants collected from various area of Khaptad National Park, one of the famous National Parks renowned for the source of medicinal herb located at an altitude from 1,000 m to 3,300 m, P. edgeworthii, B. petiolaris, E. strobilifera were found to have potent cytotoxicity effect while three others, T. foliolosum, B. diffusa and A. spectabilis with LC50 of 64.50, 13.59, 6.14 respectively showed very strong cytotoxicity effect against brine shrimp nauplii. The DPPH scavenging assay of all those plants was found to vary from very high to low. B. petiolaris (13.49%) showed almost the same scavenging activity to that of Ascorbic acid (17.20%) followed by E. strobilifera (6.35%) and H. salicifolia (2.38%) at a concentration of 0.5 µg/ml. The antimicrobial activity against five microorganisms (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtillis, Klebsiella pneumonia, Bacillus thuringiensis and Enterobacter), showed a remarkable Zone Of Inhibition (ZOI). H. salicifolia showed 6.5 mm ZOI against Bacillus cereus, 7 mm against Bacillus thuringiensis and 6 mm against Klebsiella pneumonia at 25µg/ml whereas A. spectabilis showed 9 mm as highest ZOI against Enterobacter at 25 µg/ml.