Antibacterial activity of root extracts of Asparagus racemosus Willd. against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
1Greeshma. V. John and 2*S. Justin Raj
1,2Department of Biotechnology, Malankara Catholic College, Mariagiri, Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli - 627012 (India) *Corresponding author’s E-mail: rajstephy6@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants continue to be an essential source of therapeutic compounds, especially in underdeveloped nations where traditional medicine is a major component of primary healthcare. The well-known medicinal plant Asparagus racemosus has a variety of pharmacological characteristics and is utilized in Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani systems. The current study assesses the antibacterial activity of A. racemosus root extracts made with various solvents (methanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, and distilled water) against specific strains of Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. The disc diffusion method was used to measure antibacterial activity at 25, 50, and 100 µg concentrations. Comparable to the common antibiotic streptomycin, ethyl acetate extract demonstrated the strongest antibacterial activity among the studied extracts, demonstrating broadspectrum potency against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. While the water extract showed little inhibition, the methanol and hexane extracts demonstrated modest efficacy. The results support A. racemosus root’s traditional medicinal use and future utility in drug development by indicating that it contains strong bioactive chemicals with significant antibacterial activity