Poster presentation in Pokhara University

PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF in-vitro AND in-vivo MATERIALS OF Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal.

Suraj Raj Adhikari ¹, Dr. Bijaya Pant¹ and Prof. Dr. Mangala Devi Manandhar²

¹ Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal.  ²Central Department of Chemistry, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal. commonly known as “Aswhoganda”, belongs to the family Solanaceae is an important medicinal plant and is a major source of alkaloid and steroid. Callus was cultured on MS-basal medium supplemented with various concentrations and combinations of BAP, NAA, 2,4-D and kinetin. All the media gave response for callus growth. The best growth of callus was observed in the MS medium supplemented with 0.5mgl^‑1BAP+0.5mgl^-1 NAA at 8 weeks. The callus growth was observed on the MS medium supplement with 1.0mgL^-1BAP+1.0 mgL^-1NAA, 0.5mgL^-1BAP+1.5mgL^-1NAA, 1.0mgL^-1BAP+1.5mgL^-1NAA, 1.5mgL^-1 BAP+1.5mgL^-1NAA and 0.5mgL^-1BAP+2.0mgL^-1NAA. The growth of callus in MS basal medium exogenously supplied with 0.5mgL^-1BAP+0.5mgL^-1NAA, were highly significant variation (P<0.01) among all the media tested. Large callus were observed in MS medium with additives of 0.5mgL^‑1BAP+0.5mgL^-1NAA.

In phytochemical screening of Withania somnifera of in-vivo and in-vitro material; presence of reducing compound, cardiac glycosides, basic alkaloids, carotenoids, volatile oil, saponins etc. were observed. Most of the isolated compounds of Withania somnifera showed activity against tested bacteria. Withanoloides inhibited the growth of all the tested bacteria; similarly, β-sitosterol, W2 (unknown) and CHCl­3 fraction effective against 85.68% of tested bacteria. Glycoside (W4) can`t show the activity of any bacteria.

Callus of Withania somnifera contained phytocompound against the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Klebsicela pneumonia. Natural root of Withania somnifera contained the active phytocompound against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhi. The phytocompound from natural roots were more effective than the compound from the callus.