This study was designed to explore new antioxidant and antimicrobial agents from the methanol whole
plant crude extract and fractions of
Plantago rugelii. The methanol extract and its fractions were prepared and screened
for its phytochemical composition, in-
vitro antioxidant potential and challenged with common pathogenic microorganisms
for its antimicrobial activities using standard procedures. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of various
pharmaceutically active secondary metabolites like alkaloids, phenolic, flavonoids, carbohydrates, glycosides, sterols, etc.
In the DPPH assay, the aqueous methanol fraction was found to be the most effective among all the fractions in comparison
to the ascorbic acid standard. Using the zone of inhibition as inhibitory parameter, the crude methanol extract exhibited
the best antibacterial activity when challenged against all the clinical isolates except
Klebsiella pneumoniae
. The aqueous
methanol extract exhibited the best percentage fungal inhibition when compared to other fractions. The standard drugs
ciprofloxacin and fluconazole exhibited a near 100% activity except with
Proteus vulgaris
where the crude methanol
extract has a higher value.This research holds promise for the exploration of various potentially active secondary
metabolites which would help in developing pharmaceuticals, especially antioxidant and antimicrobial drugs. The
isolation and characterization of the exact metabolites responsible for these activities is therefore recommended.