Background: Ethnic medication systems have been used extensively by humans since their origin. Now a day, in the
developing countries these systems are being used due to their effectiveness and affordability. Especially inhabitants of
rural areas still rely on these systems as first line of treatment against diseased conditions. Till now, majority of medicines
is derived from the natural origin particularly plants owing to their little side effects and cost effectiveness.
Materials and Methods: In the present work, we evaluated antibacterial and antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of
Bombax ceiba stem bark. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were also assessed in the extract. The antioxidant capacity
was determined by DPPH, Nitric Oxide scavenging and reducing power activity. For antibacterial activity, Gram-negative
(
Escherichia coli
,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
and
Salmonella typhi
) and Gram-positive bacteria (
Bacillus subtilis
,
Staphylococcus aureus
) were used.
Results: Phenolic content was 133.21±1.56
µg GAE/mg of extract while Flavonoid content was 997.93±2.14
µg QE/mg.
Plant extract demonstrated strong antiradical activity with EC
50 18.78 ± 0.69 and 23.62 ± 1.99
µg/ml for Nitric Oxide and
DPPH assay respectively while EC
50 in case of reducing power activity was 139.4 ± 0.98
µg/ml. Plant extract displayed
inhibitory effect against microbial growth with
S. typhi as the most resistant strain and
Staphylococcus aureus the most
sensitive one.
Conclusion: This study revealed that
Bombax ceiba of local origin has broad spectrum antibacterial activity and it can also
provide defense against oxidative stress.
