Abstract:
Medicinal plants are defined as feral and/or cultivated plants that, based on tradition and
literature records, can be directly or indirectly used for medical purposes. The basis for this
use is that these plants contain so called active ingredients (active principles or biologically
active principles) that affect physiological (metabolic) processes of living organisms,
including human beings. The plant Dracaena spicata has been used for the general promotion
of health and longevity by Asian tribal (specially Chakma, Marma and Tanchunga). It is used
as a traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases cough, syphilis, conjunctivitis,
constipation, pills prepared from the leaves are taken with warm water twice daily for the
treatment of measles by the Chakma etc. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the
antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of dichloromethane (DCM) extract of Dracaena spicata.
The test samples of D. spicata exhibited zone of inhibition ranging from 10 to 30.0 mm
against the test organisms. The highest (30.0mm) zone of inhibition was demonstrated against
Vibrio mimicus and Salmonella paratyphi. The brine shrimp lethality bioassay was performed
to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of DCM extract of the Dracaena spicata by their brine
shrimp lethality. From this test, the concentration required for killing 50% of the brine shrimp
larva or LC50 of the DCM extract of the Dracaena spicata was calculated approximately as
29.0976 μg /mL with a R2 value of 0.8699. So, it is evident that the DCM extract of Dracaena
spicata is mild to moderate cytotoxic as well as biologically active and also has high
antimicrobial potentiality. This is only a preliminary study but the plant can be further
screened against various diseases in order to find out its unexplored efficacy and can be a
potential source of biologically important drug candidates. Still there are plenty of scopes to
establish a variety of properties which can be significantly beneficial to mankind.
Description:
This thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) in East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
