Abstract

ETHNOBOTANICAL SURVEY OF SMILAX ZEYLANICA L. PLANT AND ANALYSIS FOR ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTICANCER ACTIVITY

Firdos F. M. Khaleel Baig*, Dr. Roopa V. Sangvikar

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Abstract

Smilax zeylanica L. is a medicinal climbing shrub; many phytochemicals, such as sarsaparilla, smilagen, diosgenin, etc., have been isolated from this plant. From leaf to root, the plant exhibits several medicinal properties, including anti-diabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. The objective of the present study is to survey the ethnobotanical importance of the Smilax zeylanica L. plant and evaluate in vitro antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Surveys reveal that the plant is used as medicine, food, fodder, dyes, etc. The methanol extract of leaf, stem and root parts was tested for antimicrobial activity by the Agar-Well Diffusion method on eight microorganisms and showed a good inhibition. Fungi: Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Helminthosporium gramineum, Mucor plumbeus and Bacteria: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi, Basillus subtilis. The anticancer activity of the plant was checked by the MTT assay method on the Breast cancer cell line (MCF7) and yielded good results. All the samples of plant, root, stem and leaf showed a good inhibition potential on microorganisms’ growth and cancer cells proliferation.

Keywords: Ethnobotanical, Antimicrobial, MIC, Anticancer, and MTT assay.