Antibacterial Screening of Karanjwa Seeds (Caesalpinia bonducella Roxb.): An Effective Unani Medicine for Infectious Diseases
*Sumbul Rehman and Abdul Latif
Hippocratic Journal of Unani Medicine
Hippocratic Journal of Unani Medicine April - June 2015, Vol. 10 No. 2, Pages 101-109
सार
Karanjwa (Caesalpinia bonducella Roxb.) has been reported in various Unani Classical books to be used in infectious diseases, but the study to confirm its efficacy scientifically is not done so far. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to evaluate its antibacterial efficacy against various pathogenic bacterial strains by using Kirby Bauer’s Disk Diffusion and Agar well method according to Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) Guidelines by W.H.O. Ethanolic and Aqueous extracts of the drug were used (40 μl/well) and the efficacy of the drug was compared with the standard drug i.e. Ciprofloxacin disk for Gram positive bacteria and Gentamicin for Gram negative strains and Control (Solvent used for dissolving the extracts i.e. Dimethyl Sulphoxide). Antibacterial effect was evaluated by measuring Zone of Inhibition (ZOI) (in mm). All the experiments were conducted in triplicates and in sterilized conditions. The results were analyzed statistically by using ANOVA. Phytochemical analysis of the drug confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, saponins, tannins and triterpenoids. Results indicate that Caesalpinia bonducella Roxb. has a significant activity against Bacillus cereus, Coryne bacterium xerosis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while moderate activity against Proteus vulgaris and Staphylococcus aureus. The study provides an in-vitro evidence of Karanjwa for having a very effective role against these pathogenic bacterial strains and can be considered as effective ‘Drug Target’ for further screening its effect in New Drug Development (NDD) in Research and Development (R & D) Unit in an effort to combat many infectious diseases