Medicinal Chemistry

Proximate Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activities of Fixed oils from Diospyros lotus L.

Abstract

Ghias Uddin, Abdur Rauf, Bina Shaheen Siddiqui, Mohammad Arfan, Inayat-Ur-Rahman and Inamullah Khan

Diospyros lotus roots are traditionally used in various diseases including its use in microbialinfections. We designed a study to identify chemical constituents of oil from D. lotus and its antimicrobial activities. Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer(GC-MS) was used for chemical analyses. Results showed that oil contained saturated as well as unsaturated compounds. Oil was investigated for its antimicrobial properties. Oil showed moderate antibacterial activity against two gram positive and two gram negative bacterial strains however oil showed low activity against four fungal strains. Interestingly no cytotoxicity was observed in Brine shrimp model; these encouraging results indicate further yet extensive studies to explore therapeuticpotential in microbial infections.