Abstract

ANTI-TUBERCULAR ACTIVITY ON STEM BARK OF CASSIA MARGINATA

R. Muthuselvi*, D. Ashok Kumar, P. Senniappan, R. Vijaya Bharathi and
N. Jayshree

ABSTRACT

Cassia marginata (Caesalpiniaceae) is found in most parts of central and southern India often planted for ornamental purposes and along the roads for shade. It is a small or medium sized, tomentose, deciduous tree, 7.5 to 10.5 m in height. It is commonly called as Red cassia. The bark is deeply cracked, light brown and fibrous. Modern research carried out on the Caesalpiniaceae plants reveals that most of the plants belonging to this family are medicinally important as they contain biologically active compounds. The family has been reported to contain Steroids, Flavonoids, Terpenoids, Alkaloids, Phenol, Saponins, Glycosides and Tannins. Its leaves, seeds, bark and flowers are the medicinally useful parts. The present study was carried out to find out the susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the bark extract ofCassia marginata. Anti-tubercular activity was significant in the ethyl acetate extract by using Micro plate Alamar Blue Assay (MABA) when compared to the other extracts. Hence the ethyl acetate extract was choosen for LRP Assay. Luciferase reporter phage (LRP) assay was used to study the inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The LRP assay showed that ethyl acetate extract of bark at concentrations of 100 and 500μg/ml showed good activity against the Standard strain of M.tuberculosis H37RV and clinical isolate of M.tuberculosis resistant to S, H, R and E. The results show that ethyl acetate bark extract at concentration of 100μg/ml was found to cause 71.06% reduction in Relative Light Units (RLU) and at concentration of 500μg/ml was found to cause 81.25% reduction in RLU. This shows that the ethyl acetate extract has significant anti-tubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Keywords: Cassia marginata, Ethyl acetate extract, Anti-tubercular Activity, Luciferase Reporter Phage (LRP).