2018, Vol. 6, Issue 5, Part A

author(s)
Ved Prakash, Shelly Rana and Anand Sagar

abstract
The use of plants for treating various diseases is as old as the human civilization. Plant products have served as a major source of drugs for centuries and about half of the pharmaceuticals in use today are derived from these herbal products. The efficacy and safety of herbal medicines have attracted the major pharmaceutical population towards medicinal plants research. The current study was designed to investigate the leaf extract of Taxus baccata Linn. for its antibacterial and antioxidant activity. The antibacterial activity of the acetone, aqueous and methanol leaf extracts was determined in-vitro against medically important pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Yersinia pestis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus following agar-well diffusion method using different concentrations (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). Results showed low to significant antibacterial activity against the mentioned bacterial species. Methanol leaf extract was found to be more effective against selected pathogenic bacterial species as compared to acetone and aqueous leaf extracts. Further the leaf extract inhibited gram- positive bacteria more efficiently than gram- negative bacteria. The antioxidant capacity of the different extracts (methanol, acetone and aqueous) of T. baccata was evaluated by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and reducing power tests at different concentrations (20-100 µg/mL). The plant exhibited good DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power potential (≥50% at 100 µg/mL). Therefore, the leaf extracts of this plant can be selected for further investigation to determine their therapeutic potential.