ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF FLAVONOIDS ISOLATED FROM VITEX NEGUNDO.

There has been an increasing incidence of multiple resistances in human pathogenic microorganism in recent years, largely due to indiscriminate use of commercial antimicrobial drugs commonly employed in the treatment of various diseases. The objective of present study is to isolate flavonoids from Vitex negundo a plant growing in wild in the forest of Baruasagar, of Jhansi region. Flavonoids consist of large group of polyphenolic compounds having a benzo-?-pyrone structure and are ubiquitously present in plants. They are synthesized by phenylpropanoid pathways. Present work was carried out for screening of the antimicrobial potential of flavonoids extracted from V. negundo against some multidrug resistant pathogenic bacteria and the emphasis is to produce herbal formulations from V. negundo. Different plant parts (stem, root, and leaves) of V. negundo were collected and air dried and then Soxhlet extraction by using standard method for flavonoids extraction. After this, extracts were tested for their antimicrobial activity using well diffusion method by observing inhibition zones. Antibacterial activity of leaves, stem and root of Vitex negundo was evaluated against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa. Results showed maximum antibacterial activity against E coli followed by S. aureus and the least antibacterial activity was found against P. aeuroginosa.