Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Volume: 19; Number 3; Year 2024 Cite this article as: Sundar RDV, Arunachalam S. Antibacterial effect of Dracaena indivisa leaf extracts. Bangla- desh J Pharmacol. 2024; 19: 103-105. Antibacterial effect of Dracaena indivisa leaf extracts Dear Editor, Antibiotic overuse is harmful to the environment, eco- systems, and human well-being. Additionally, it stimu- lates the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, a major worldwide concern that is rapidly growing more intense in both hospital and community settings and creating emerging challenges for healthcare providers in terms of morbidity and mortality. To manage resis- tant bacteria, it is imperative to find and create alternate strategies. One promising strategy is the rational locali- zation of bioactive phytochemicals with antibacterial activity (Masoumian and Zandi, 2017). The antibacterial effect of Dracaena plant species such as D. colorama (Sundar et al., 2020), D. victoria (Sundar et al., 2020), D. mahatma (Saranya et al., 2018) and D. marginata (Shiny et al., 2012) have been reported. The current study focu- sed on the investigation of the antibacterial effect of leaf extracts from D. indivisa against bacterial pathogens. Healthy plant parts free of disease were gathered from the Vellore district and rinsed with clean water. These plant parts, likely leaves, were then dried in the air, and ground into a fine powder using a blender. Roughly 10 grams of this powder was soaked in various solvents (around 100 mL each). These soaking solvents included petroleum ether, acetone, methanol, and chloroform. The mixtures were shaken constantly for two days at 37°C and a specific speed (120 rpm). Next, the liquids were separated from the plant material using filter paper. A rotatory evaporator was used to remove the remaining solvents. The concentrated substances left behind were then dissolved in another liquid (DMSO) for further tests. Qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out to determine the presence or absence of saponins, tannins, anthraquinone glycosides phenols, flavonoids, and ter- penoids using standard procedures (Devi et al., 2012). The study assessed the in vitro antagonistic efficacy of crude extracts against Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Klebsilla pneumoniae, Salmonella typhi, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using a well diffusion assay. Briefly, bacterial suspensions were prepared in nutrient broth, standardized, and uniformly spread onto Muller- Hinton agar plates. Wells (6 mm diameter) were created in the agar, and varying concentrations (50, 75, and 100 µg/mL) of the prepared extracts were introduced. Following incubation at 37°C, the diameters of zones of inhibition surrounding the wells were measured. DMSO served as a negative control, while ciprofloxacin antibiotic was a positive control (Santos et al., 2015). The broth micro-dilution technique was used to deter- mine the minimum inhibitory concentration of the extracts that showed significant antibacterial activity. A 96-well plate was added with approximately 100 μL of Muller-Hinton broth. Seven wells were prepared using a two-fold serial dilution process after 100 μL of the crude extracts were added to the first well at a concentration of 1 mg/mL from the stock solution. The wells' concentrations vary between 50 and 0.78 μg/mL subsequently. After adding 5 μL of bacterial culture, the final two wells with Muller-Hinton broth served as a positive control, while the well-containing bacteria and MHB served as a negative control. For 12 to 18 hours, the plate was incubated at 37°C. Post incubation the culture growth was visually detected. The lowest con- centration that inhibits the visible growth of bacteria was measured as MIC value (Santos et al., 2015). A Perkin Elmer Clarus-680 fitted with a Clarus 600 mass spectrometer and a capillary column (30 m, 0.25 mm ID, 250 µm film thickness) was used to conduct the GC-MS analysis. The initial oven temperature was A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2024; 19: 103-105 Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info; www.bdpsjournal.org Abstracted/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Global Health, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v19i3.75447 Letter to the Editor This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, distribute and perform the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor Table I MIC of the crude extracts of D. indivisa (µg/mL) Extracts L. monocytogenes P. aeruginosa S. typhi K. pneumoniae S. aureus Petroleum ether 12.5 6.25 12.5 6.25 6.25 Acetone 6.25 12.5 3.12 3.12 12.5 Chloroform 1.56 3.12 1.56 1.56 3.12 Methanol 12.5 25 12.5 3.12 25 maintained at 60°C for 2 min, then increased to 300°C at a rate of 10°C/min for 6 min. The flow of helium was maintained at 1 mL/min. Temperatures of 240°C were chosen for the mass transfer line and the source. The entire procedure took 25 min to complete. The chemical combinations were compared to the mass spectral profiles in the NIST collection (2008) using Turbo mass software (version 5.4.2) for spectrum analysis (Sundar et al., 2020). Qualitative phytochemical screening of the leaf extract discovered the existence of phenols, flavonoids, alka- loids, anthraquinone glycosides and terpenoids in all four extracts. The plant extracts studied exhibited varying levels of inhibitory effects against bacterial strains, as measured by the diameter of the growth inhi- bition zones. The results, showed that all tested bacteria were susceptible to the extracts, with significant differ- ences (p < 0.05) in the mean diameters of the inhibition zones. The chloroform crude extract had the highest inhibitory effect against K. pneumoniae and L. monocyto- genes, with a zone of inhibition measuring 23 and 21 mm with 1.56 MIC µg/mL respectively. Followed by methanol extract against K. pneumoniae (20 mm) MIC 3.12 µg/mL and S. aureus (18.8 mm) MIC 25 µg/mL. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the extracts 104 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2024; 19: 103-105 Figure 1: GC-MS analysis of D. indivisa chloroform extract ranged between 3.12-1.56 µg/mL for chloroform crude extract (Table I). The GC-MS analysis of chloroform extract revealed the presence of 30 compounds 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol (RT 13.43), n-hexadecanoic acid (RT 18.39), octadecanoic acid (RT 20.28), benzeneacetamide (RT 12.07), cycloocta- siloxane, hexadecamethyl- (RT 14.76), cyclononasilo- xane, octadecamethyl- (RT 16.45), 2,5-dihydroxyben- zoic acid, 3TMS derivative (RT 21.73) were the antibacterial compounds present in the chloroform extract which has been reported (Figure 1). Previous study reported that octadecanoic acid from hydroponics root ethyl acetate extract of Trigonella foneum graecum (Sudharsan et al., 2011). Trichaptum biforme extract has antagonistic effect on B. subtillis and S. aureus in which the GC-MS analysis determines that n-hexadecanoic acid key component for its antibacterial property (Yakhlef et al., 2020). Cyclooctasiloxane, octa- decamethyl- from ethanol extracts of Sedum pallidum exhibited antibacterial activity (Dahpour et al., 2012). 2, 3-dihydroxybenzoic acid was isolated from the fruit extract of Flacourtia inermis showed activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and K. pneumonia (George et al., 2011). 2,4-Di-tert-butylphenol (2,4-DTBP) purified from Streptomyces sp. KCA1 from Phyllanthus niruri exhibited antagonism E. coli and S. aureus (Seenivasan et al., 2022). 3TMS derivative is a bioactive component present in Moringa oleifera fruit (Shunmugapriya et al., 2017) D. colorama leaf ethyl acetate extract showed the highest zone of inhibition against P. aeruginosa of about 16 mm at 100 μg/mL concentration (Sundar et al., 2020). Leaf extract of D. victoria revealed substantial antagonism against E.coli with 22 mm ZOI at 10 mg/mL concen- tration (Saranya et al., 2018). The present investigation suggests that the chloroform extract from D. indivisa holds significant promise for antibacterial capabilities. Limitations of this study are to validate analytical che- mistry research on the purification and identification of bioactive secondary metabolites, as well as their mecha- nisms in inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. Financial support: Self-funded Ethical issue: The bacterial cultures used for current research, does not require an ethical approval. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no competing inter- ests. Acknowledgment: The authors thank Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore for providing the lab facilities to carry out this study. Ranjitha Dhevi V. Sundar1 and Sathiavelu Arunachalam2 1Department of Biotechnology, School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 14, India; 2Department of Agriculture microbiology, VIT School of Agricultural Innovations and Advanced Learning, VIT, Vellore, India. 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