BIOACTIVE COMPOUND IN CURCUMA CAESIA (ROXB.) FROM BASTAR AND ITS SPECTRAL ANALYSIS BY HPLC, UV-VISIBLE, FT-IR, NMR, AND ESI-MS

The increasing failures of chemotherapeutics and antibiotic resistance exhibited by pathogenic microbes have led to the screening of several medicinal plants for their potential antimicrobial activity. Thus, the present endeavour deals with the exploration of antibacterial efficacy of Curcuma caesia (Roxb.) (Family Zingiberaceae) against bacterial cultures procured from IMTECH, Chandigarh as a screen for potential candidates for the development of natural antibiotics. The agar well diffusion assay was performed to screen antibacterial activity, and ZOI was recorded. The results were analyzed using one way ANOVA with DMRT. A broth macro-dilution assay was used to determine (MIC) and (MBC). Finally, the purified fraction was chemically characterized by spectral analysis. The antibacterial activity profile revealed that the methanolic root extract exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial potentiality. The extract exhibiting the highest antibacterial activity was purified by column chromatography and further with HPLC, and TLC analyzed the band pattern. The bio-efficacy of the purified fraction was assessed against pathogenic bacteria, and the MIC and MBC were determined. The maximum zone of inhibition was recorded against B. cereus (MTCC 430) and K. pneumoniae (MTCC 3384). The purified fraction from a crude extract of C. caesia (Roxb.) indicates that the molecular weight of the purified compound is 368, the molecular formula is C₂₁H₂₀O₆. Its chemical characteristics and structural properties were found to be similar to that of 1, 7-bis (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione. However, this is the first report of the presence of curcumin in C. caesia (Roxb.) from Bastar demonstrating antibacterial property.