BIOLOGICAL SCREENING OF DIFFERENT ROOT EXTRACTS OF EUPHORBIA WALLICHII

Abstract

Root extracts of Euphorbia wallichii obtained from n-hexane (E1), chloroform (E2), ethyl acetate (E3) and n-butanol (E4) were tested In vitro for their phytotoxicity, cytotoxicity, antibacterial and antifungal activities. All the extracts at high concentration of 1000 µg ml-1 showed 60-100% phytotoxicity and 50-100% cytotoxicity while at low concentration of 10 µg ml-1 they showed 3080% phytotoxicity and 25-70% cytotoxicity. Antibacterial study performed against six bacteria viz., Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Shigella flexenari, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi showed a trend of inhibition zone in E2 and E3 extracts was found to be the most active while E1 and E4 extracts exhibited moderate to low activity in killing the tested bacteria. No significant antifungal activity for 6 tested fungi was observed.