Abstract

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF DASAMOOLA – AN AYURVEDIC DRUG

*M. Linga Rao, N. Savithramma

Department of Botany, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati- 517 502, A.P, India.

Abstract

Dasamoola is a combination of ten medicinal plants of which principally roots are employed in compounding of Ayurveda medicine. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of the aqueous extract of Dasamoola. Antimicrobial activity was carried out by using disc diffusion method. The results showed varying degree of inhibitory potential against all the tested bacteria and fungi. Maximum inhibitory activity against Pseudomonas (33.332.8), followed by Bacillus (22.32.51), Staphylococcus (21.662.88) and Proteus (19.331.15); and least activity was observed against E.coli (7.31.15). The aqueous extract was very much effective against Rhizopus (35.61.15) and Aspergillus niger (30.61.15); and less effective against Curvularia (9.31.15), Aspergillus flavus (9.31.15) and Fusarium (8.30.57) at different concentrations (250-1000 mg/ml). The antimicrobial activity of aqueous extract of Dasamoola may be due to their diversified phytochemical contents, which may act synergistically to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Further studies are carried out to isolate and characterize the bioactive compounds responsible for the microbial strains which got resistance to traditional drugs.

Keywords: Dasamoola, Antimicrobial activity, Ayurvedic drug.