Antimicrobial potential and phytochemical screening of different extracts of Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa from Kashmir Himalaya, India

In the present study, antimicrobial and phytochemical activities of the two important medicinal plants Viz. Rumex dentatus, Saussurea lappa was carried out with the help of Agar well diffusion method. The pharmacological activity of Rumex dentatus, Saussurea lappa against Escherichia coli, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus was tested. It was recorded in our study that aqueous extract has shown the significant antibacterial activity in all the plant extracts against all the tested bacterial strains. Aqueous extract of Rumex dentatus was found to be very effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (35 ± 0.44 mm) whereas aqueous extract of Saussurea lappa has been recorded with highly effective against Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (31± 0.44 mm). Further, ethanol, methanol, and aqueous extract of Saussurea lappa have shown the promising antibacterial activity against Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus except in case of methanol against Escherichia coli. Further, methanol extract of Rumex dentatus has shown great antimicrobial activity that other. Methanolic extract of Rumex dentatus extracts inhibited none of the tested bacterial strains in our study. The phytochemical investigation of the various extract of Saussurea lappa showed a positive result for Saponin, Tanin, and Phenol in methanol and ethanol extract. Terpenoid, Carbohydrate, and phenol were tested positive in all the solvents for Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa whereas steroid, Phlobatannin, Starch, Flavonoid, Napthoquione, and Insulin were absent in all the extract of Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa. We can conclude from the study that Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa can be used as a potential source of treating different diseases due to their great antimicrobial and biological activity along with various phytoconstituents.


Introduction
India is well known for its great biodiversity and cultural mosaic. Kashmir is an essential part of India which supports a large number of medicinal plant diversity. Rumex dentatus, Saussurea lappa are important medicinal plants which traditionally utilized as a source of various medicines in different human diseases. Plants and plant-based products have been used as a source of medicine for millions of years ago. New complimentary products have been obtained from plants by using modern scientific technology (Sarin, 1996). Today, various biological agents have been obtained from plants that treating different human diseases. Plants are a great source of drugs in the modern medicine system. They are also providing food supplements, nutraceuticals, and various pharmaceuticals which have great efficiency for curing the diseases (Girach et al., 2003;Khanahmadi et al., 2010). Further, adopting the traditional medicinal system as an alternate form for curing different diseases has led to novel drug development through all the previous knowledge (Qureshi et al., 2009). As synthetic compounds have caused severe adverse effects on human health so strong restrictions should be followed while using a plant in any particular disease. Due to the adverse effects of synthetic drugs, high restrictions are being placed on these novel compounds which tend to be a substitute for old traditional plants (Knight, 1997).

Original Research Article
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ISSN: 2582-6697
The antimicrobial and antioxidant product of medicinal plants has made a significant contribution to disease prevention (Drehe, 1996). In India, these two plants are commonly found in Kashmir, Jammu, along with the Western Ghats. Rumex dentatus belongs to the family Polygonaceae and Saussurea lappa belongs to the family Asteraceae occurs within the altitude of 6000-12000 ft (Gutteridge, 1985). These two plants have great antimicrobial potential along with highly active biological compounds. Saussurea lappa is continuously disappearing due to maximum demand for medicinal purposes and careless handling (Ahmad et al., 2007, Madhuri et al., 2012. In the Ayurveda system, its root is used to treat asthma, rheumatism, dysentery, skin problems, ringworm, and epilepsy Shah, 1982) whereas in the Unani medicinal system it is used for treating asthma, old fever, headache, ophthalmic, paralysis and inflammation Kritikar et al., 1987).

Materials and methods
Plants like Rumex dentatus, Saussurea lappa plant were collected from Union territory ie., Srinagar, and identified from Botanical Survey of India. The herbarium was deposited in the department of life Science, Himalayan University, Itanagar. India.

Extraction of plant material
The plant was dried (about 50 g) and converted into dried form. The crude extraction was done with ethanol, methanol, and aqueous solvent in Soxhlet assembly to get the extract which dried and kept for further analysis.

Antimicrobial activity
The microbial assay was done with the help of the disc diffusion method (Kaul, 1997).

Phytochemical analysis
All the plant extract was tested for Phytochemical analysis in which major phytoconstituents were determined by using the standard method (Baue et al., 1966;NCCLS, 1990). All the plant extracts were tested for the absence or presence of biologically active compounds such as Tanin, Saponin, Steroid Flavonoid, Terpenoid, Napthoquione, Phenol, Carbohydrate, Carbohydrate, and starch.

Antimicrobial activity
Plants are the source of natural products that offer various medicinal properties. The result from the present study recorded that aqueous extract of both plants showed significant antimicrobial activity than other solvents against thus inhibited high bacterial strains. This might be due to the presence of phenolic and polyphenolic compounds in the extract (Cowan, 1999). A similar finding was observed by different workers with high antimicrobial activity of Rumex sp. (Aboaba et al., 2001, Karou et al., 2006.  Negi et al., 2013, also tested the antimicrobial activity of S. lappa against B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa with significant results. Pharmalogical aspects in terms of antibacterial activity of S. lappa were also tested by Rao et al., 2007 against pathogens which have shown great results. Our study (Table 2 ) revealed that methanol extract of Rumex dentatus failed to exhibit effect against the microorganism while the best antibacterial activity was detected in the aqueous extract of Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa. Workers like Elzaeawely et.al., (2005) recommended that the antibacterial assay of Rumex might be the presence of phenolic substances in its extract. Similarly, the study of Kupeli et al., (2004) and Jang et al., (2005) also reported great antimicrobial activity in various parts of Rumex.

Qualitative analysis of phytochemical constituents
Plants have shown great antimicrobial and pharmacological activity in different solvents. Further, awareness regarding phytochemicals is rising due to their good impact on human beings. In the present study, the high content of saponin, tannin, flavonoid, and phenolic compounds. The earlier study of Chandur et al., 2011 in S. lappa also showed high content of saponins, alkaloids, carbohydrates, and glycosides. The phytochemical investigation of the various extract of Sausserrea lappa showed a positive result of Saponin, Tanin, and Phenol in methanol and ethanol extract. Terpenoid, Carbohydrate, and phenol were tested positive in all the solvents for Rumex dentatus and Sausserea lappa whereas steroid, Phlobatannin, Starch, Flavonoid, Napthoquione, and Insulin were absent in all the extract of Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa (Table 3). Other phytochemical of Rumex dentatus and Saussurea lappa has shown positive and negative result at the time of screening. Saponin Insulin ------8 Phenol + + + + + + 9 Carbohydrate Starch ------

Conclusion
R. dentatus and S. lappa possess great medicinal properties. These plants are used to cure various human diseases since ancient civilizations. Further, it is now well proved from earlier and presents an experimental study that these two plants have a great pharmacological aspect in terms of antibacterial and phytochemical properties. Aqueous extract of both plants has shown a significant result as compared to other solvents with a maximum inhibitory zone in the present study. Due to the great pharmacological and traditional properties of these two plants, further studies on the bioactive compounds could be done for future biological activities and further research.

Authors' contributions
Mohd. Zakir, Narendra Kumar and Akash have contributed significantly to the conception and design of the study, the interpretation of data, and the drafting and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript .