ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL SCREENING OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS USING MTT AND THE MICROPLATE RESAZURIN ASSAY

Tuberculosis holds one of the top places on the list of the main cause of death in India. At times, the patients fail to respond to treatment with anti-Tb drugs, drug resistance being one of the reasons. The increasing incidence of MDR and XDR-TB highlights the urgent need to search for newer anti-Tb drugs. For last many years, plants have beneficial activity in a different types of diseases producing in human beings. As per WHO calculation about 80% of the world’s inhabitants problem should treat by medicinal herbal drugs for their primary health care. So, the present aim to carry out the evaluation of the anti-mycobacterial activity of selected eleven medicinal plants. Three different extracts were prepared and evaluated for their antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis using MTT and Microplate Resazurin assay. Isoniazid was used as a standard drug. The percentage for anti-mycobacterial smegmatis activity among tested eleven medicinal plants, an aqueous extract of Cocculus hirsutus and Leptedinia reticulata shows potent antimycobacterial activity. Thus, its result supports the uses of these plants in traditional medicine and can be further studied using more specific methods for antimycobacterial activity.