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African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 7 (2), pp. 086-087, 18 January, 2008
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2008 Academic Journals
Short Communication
Antibacterial activity of whole plant extract of
Marrubium vulgare
Mubashir H. Masoodi1*, Bahar Ahmed2, Iqbal M. Zargar1, Saroor A. Khan2, Shamshir Khan2
and Singh P.1
1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, J and K, India – 190006.
2Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, India -
110062.
Accepted 26 November, 2007
The antibacterial activity of the methanolic extract of Marrubium vulgare whole plant was tested by disc
diffusion method. Zones of Inhibition produced by methanolic extract in a dose of 50, 100, 200, 400 and
600 mg/ml against selected strains was measured and compared with those of standard discs of
antibiotic ciprofloxacin (10 µg/ml).
Key words: Disc diffusion, antibacterial activity, Marrubium vulgare.
INTRODUCTION
Marrubium vulgare L. (Lamiaceae) commonly known as
“Horehound” is naturalized in North and South America,
the Mediterranean district and Western Asia. In India it is
found in Kashmir at an altitude of 5,000 - 8,000 ft. It is a
tall robust herbaceous perennial herb, 40 - 120 cm high,
densely covered, especially when young, with a thick
white cottony flower (Robert and Henry, 1880). It posses-
ses tonic, aromatic, stimulant, expectorant, diaphoretic
and diuretic properties. It is helpful for bronchial asthma
and non-productive cough. It was formerly much esteem-
ed in various uterine, visceral and hepatic affections and
in phthisis (Chopra et al., 1956). The plant is reported to
possess hypoglycemic (Roman et al., 1992), vasorelaxant
(El-Bardai et al., 2003b), antihypertensive (El-Bardai et
al., 2004), analgesic (DeSouza et al., 1998), anti-
inflammatory (Sahpaz et al., 2002a), antioxidant activity
(Weel et al., 1999), antioedematogenic activity (Stulzer et
al., 2006) and many other reported biological activities.
Phytochemicals present in the plant include caryophy-
llene oxide, trans-caryophyllene (Asadipour et al., 2005),
caffeoyl-l-malic acid, acteoside (Sahpaz et al., 2002a),
phenylethanoid glycoside, marruboside (Sahpaz et al.,
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mube5@yahoo.com. Tel:
009419076525
2002b), vulgarol, -sitosterol, lupeol and marrubiin (Amer,
1993), respectively. The present study was undertaken to
demonstrate the antibacterial activity of Marrubium vul-
gare whole plant against some Gram-positive and Gram-
negative bacteria.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
The whole plant of M. vulgare was collected from Jammu and
Kashmir in August. It was identified and authenticated by taxono-
mist Prof. A. R. Naqshi (Dept. of Botany, University of Kashmir,
Srinagar, India). The voucher specimen (MV-FP-18) of the plant
has been kept in the herbarium of Jamia Hamdard for future
reference.
Whole plant of M. vulgare was dried in shade and crushed to fine
powder. The dried powder of the plant (200 g) was extracted in
Soxhlet apparatus with methanol. The extract was evaporated to
dryness by evaporation on a water bath. A semisolid brown crude
extract of whole plant so obtained was tested for the anti-microbial
activity against various bacterial strains. These bacterial strains
were obtained from Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH),
MTCC and Gene Bank, Chandigarh, India.
Sterile nutrient agar plates were prepared and incubated at 37oC
for 24 h to check for any contamination. Sterile filter paper discs
(Whatman No.1) of 6 mm diameter were soaked in five different
dilutions of the methanolic extract and placed in appropriate posi-
tion on the surface of the plate with quadrants marked at the back
of the petri dishes. The in vitro antibacterial activity of different
extracts of M. vulgare at 50, 100, 200, 400 and 600 mg/ml was
studied by disc diffusion method (Pelczar et al., 1993) against
Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epide-
Masoodi et al. 087
Table 1. Antibacterial activity of methanolic extract of whole plant of M. vulgare.
Zone of inhibition (mm) are average of triplicate experiments. Disc diameter = 6 mm
rmidis, Pseudomonos aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris. The Petri
dishes were incubated at 37oC for 18 h and the diameter of the
zone of inhibition measured in mm. The activity of the methanolic
extract was compared with ciprofloxacin (10 µg/ml). The zone of
inhibition was calculated by measuring the minimum dimensions of
the zone of no microbial growth around the disc and minimum
inhibitory concentrations were determined. An average of three
independent determinations was recorded (Table 1).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The methanolic extract of the whole plant of M. vulgare
exhibited moderate to significant antibacterial activity
against five out of six tested bacterial organisms as
compared to the standard ciprofloxacin (10 µg/ml). The
study revealed that methanolic extract of the crude drug
was very much effective against B. subtilis, S.
epidermidis and S. aureus (Gram positive bacteria) and
moderately effective against P. vulgaris and E. coli while
ineffective in case of P. aeruginosa (Gram negative
bacteria).
Thus on the basis of the results it is inferred that the
methanolic extract of M. vulgare whole plant had in-vitro
antibacterial. Further phytochemical studies are needed
to identify active constituents responsible for the ob-
served activity.
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Bacteria Zones of Inhibition (mm)
(mg/ml) MIC
(mg/ml) Ciprofloxacin
(10 µg/ml)
50 100 200 400 600
B. subtilis MTCC 619 0 10 13 17 24 100 30
S. epidermidis MTCC 435 0 0 11 15 21 200 25
S. aureus MTCC 740 0 09 11 15 20 100 22
E. coli MTCC 443 0 0 0 10 15 400 25
P. vulgaris MTCC 426 0 0 0 11 16 400 22
P. aeruginosa MTCC 424 0 0 0 0 0 0 23