Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Potential of Haplophyllum gilesii (Hemsl.) C.C. from Northern Pakistan.

Abstract: Present study was aimed to enlighten the antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of Haplophyllum gilesii (Hemsl.) C.C. a narrow endemic plants of northern areas of Pakistan. The antimicrobial potential of H. gilesii extracts in different solvents was assessed using agar well diffusion method against bacterial and fungal strains, while cytotoxic activity was studied in the methanolic extract using brine shrimp's lethality assay. All the extracts showed significant biological activity against Gram positive, Gram negative bacteria and selected fungal strains. Acetone, chloroform and methanolic extracts showed maximum activity i-e 39mm, 44mm and 35mm followed by ethyl acetate 27mm and n-hexane 26mm against microorganisms studied. Standard antibiotics were used as a positive control for bacteria and fungi respectively. The cytotoxic assay results showed that methanolic extracts of stem and root of H. gilesii had toxic effects on brine shrimp larvae with LD50 values of 116.72 µg/ml and 168.16 µg/ml respec tively. The antimicrobial and cytotoxic parameters reported can be considered as quality standards of H. gilesii in herbal industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]