EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF GLYCINE MAX L.

mirr
INTRODUCTION
Plants are a major group of life forms that inhabit the earth. They include trees, herbs, bushes,
grass, vines, fungi etc. It is estimated that around 350,000 species of plants exist of which around
287,655 have been identified. Plants are multicellular, eukaryotic life forms which are
autotrophic in nature with the exception of fungi. The presence of chlorophyll pigments in plants
enable them to synthesize their own food and they also serve as the producers in food chain from
which the rest of the organisms derive energy.
Plants are not just used as food. Plant products have a variety of other applications as well. All
human nutrition depends on plants directly or indirectly. Most parts of the plants are edible in
nature. Fruits and vegetables, flower, stems and leaves are also used for providing energy. Plants
provide a variety of taste enhancers as well. Spices and herbs are chief among them which are
traditionally used in the culinary of different cultures. Plants also provide products such as sugar,
tea, coffee, beverages etc., this being the chief use of plants, there are other areas as well where
the plants are equally used. Wood from plants is used for building furniture, as a source of paper,
cardboard, and for the manufacture of various other equipments. Plants also provide fossil fuel in
the form of coal, petroleum and natural gas. Thousands of plants are cultivated to beautify the
environment, provide shade, reduce pollution, abate noise and wind speed and to prevent soil
erosion. Plants find applications in almost all walks of life.
The study of plant uses by people is termed as Economic Botany or Ethnobotany. They are
often used as synonyms but some consider Economic botany to focus mainly on the uses of the
modern cultivated plants while Ethnobotany studies the uses of indigenous plants by native
people. Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of
indigenous plants. Ethnobotanists explore how plants are used for such things as food, shelter,
medicine, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies. Ethnobotany has its roots in botany, the
study of plants. Botany, in turn, originated in part from an interest in finding plants to help fight
illness. One of the most widely studied, appreciated and admired use of plants is its medicinal
applications. Herbal medicine is the oldest form of healthcare known to mankind. Herbal
Medicine sometimes referred to as Herbalism or Botanical Medicine, is the use of herbs for their
therapeutic or medicinal value. An herb is a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, aromatic
or savory qualities. Herb plants produce and contain a variety of chemical substances that act
upon the body. Herbs also contain minerals, vitamins, volatile oils, glycosides, alkaloids,
bioflavanoids, and other substances that are important in supporting a particular herb's medicinal
properties. These elements act as supporters for the efficiency of the active compound. Herbalists
use the leaves, flowers, stems, berries, and roots of plants to prevent, relieve, and treat illness.
Herbs have been used by all cultures throughout history. It was an integral part of the
development of modern civilization. Primitive man observed and appreciated the great diversity
of plants available around him. Much of the medicinal use of plants seems to have been
developed through observations of wild animals, and by trial and error. The use of plants as
medicine is older than recorded history. Marshmallow root, hyacinth, and yarrow have been
found carefully tucked around the bones of a Stone Age man in Iraq. These three medicinal herbs
are continued to be used today for their anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties. In 2735 B.C.,
the Chinese emperor Shen Nong wrote an authoritative treatise on herbs that is still in use today.
Shen Nong recommended the use of Ma Huang(also known Ephedra in the Western world),
against respiratory distress. Ephedrine, extracted from Ephedra, is widely used as a decongestant.
The records of King Hammurabi of Babylon include instructions for using medicinal plants.
Hammurabi prescribed the use of mint for digestive disorders. Modern research has confirmed
that peppermint does indeed relieve nausea and vomiting by mildly anesthetizing the lining of
the stomach. The entire Middle East has a rich history of herbal healing. In India the use of
Medicinal herbs is as old as 1500 BC. Underlying the medical culture of India both folk
traditions as well as codified knowledge systems is a deep understanding of the medicinal value
of the plants.Starting with the references in the Atharva veda, we have textual evidence of a
tradition of use of medicianal plants that is more than three thousand years old. It is estimated
that about 80,000 species of plants are utilized by the different system of Indian medicine. The
indigenous knowledge about plants and plant products is detailed and sophisticated and has
evolved into a seperate shashtra or branch of learning, called ‘Dravya Guna Shashtra’. The
codified traditions have about 25,000 plant drugs formulations that have emerged from such
studies. In addition to this over 50,000 formulations are believed to be existing in the folk and
tribal traditions. All these point to the deep passion for and exhaustive knowledge about
medicinal plants that have existed in the land from time immemorial. Through research and
testing the doubts regarding the aura of mystery that surrounded the concept employed in
Ayurveda have been removed. Consequently Ayurveda grew into a respected and widely
used system of healing in India. People from numerous countries came to Indian Ayurvedic
schools to learn about this world medicine in its completeness. By the seventeenth century, the
knowledge of herbal medicine was widely disseminated throughout Europe. The first U.S.
Pharmacopeia was published in 1820. This volume included an authoritative listing of herbal
drugs, with descriptions of their properties, uses, dosages and tests of purity. It was periodically
revised and became the legal standard for medical compounds in 1906. But as Western medicine
evolved from an art to a science in the nineteenth century, information that had at one time been
widely available became the domain of comparatively few. Many of today's drugs have been
derived from plant sources. Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal and toxic products from
natural plant sources. At one time, pharmacologists researching drugs were required to
understand the natural plant world, and physicians were schooled in plant-derived remedies.
However, as modern medicine and drug research advanced, chemically-synthesized drugs
replaced plants as the source of most medicinal agents in industrialized countries. Although
research in plant sources continued and plants were still used as the basis for some drug
development, the primary interest shifted to the laboratory. Once scientific methods were
developed to extract and synthesize the active ingredients in plants, pharmaceutical laboratories
took over as the producers of drugs. The use of herbs, which for most of history had been
mainstream medical practice, was begun to be considered as unscientific, or at least
unconventional, and fell into relative obscurity. Since 1990’s there has been a growing shift in
interest once more towards plants as a significant source of new pharmaceuticals. This revival
of interest in plant-derived drugs is mainly due to the current widespread belief that "Green
Medicine” is safe and more dependable than the costly synthetic drugs, many of which have
adverse side effects. Industries are now interested in exploring parts of the world where plant
medicine remains the predominant form of dealing with illness. The World Health Organization
(WHO) estimates that 4 billion people, 80% of the world population, presently use herbal
medicine for some aspect of primary health care. WHO notes that of 119 plant-derived
pharmaceutical medicines, about 74% are used in modern medicine in ways that correlated
directly with their traditional uses as plant medicines by native cultures. Major pharmaceutical
companies are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials gathered from the rain
forests and other places for their potential medicinal value. Scientists have also realized that the
study of the native cultures of various regions can provide enormously valuable clues in the
search for improved health. There are over 350,000 plants on earth and only a few of the
medicinal plants have been studied scientifically. The efficacy of many medicinal plants has
been validated by scientists abroad, from Europe to the Orient. Thanks to modern technology,
science can now identify some of the specific properties and interactions of botanical
constituents. With this scientific documentation, we now know why certain herbs are effective
against certain conditions. Several such researches helped viewing various medicinal plants with
potential use as drugs. Initial steps include the study of the plants for their antimicrobial
properties against various pathogenic strains and later their potential use as drugs is evaluated.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

REVIEW OF PLANT
The soybean (Glyine max) is perhaps the world’s oldest food crop, and for centuries,
nutritionally speaking, they have meant meat, milk, cheese, bread, and oil to the people of Asia.
Soybeans can be traced back to china as early as the 11th century B.C. According to Chinese
tradition, people of this region were nomadic food-gathering people, and became sedentary food-
producing agriculturalists after Shen Nung, the “father of agriculture and medicine”, taught his
subjects how to cultivate. The emergence of the soybean as a domesticated plant occurred
during the Chou dynasty (1027-221 B.C). as this dynasty expanded and trading increased, the
soybean migrated to southern China and southeastern Asia. Soybeans have been an important
source of food for Asian countries for over 5,000 years.
Materials and methods
Collection of Plant material:
Seeds of Glycine max (Soybean) were collected from local super market in Warangal, Andhra
Pradesh and authenticated by Prof. Dr. V. S Raju, Taxanomist, Department of Botany, Kakatiya
University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. Collected seeds were dried at room temperature and
powered in such a way that the material passed through sieve no. 20 and was retained on sieve
no. 40 for desired particle size.
Extraction of active principle:
Strains used
Aspergillus niger
Pencilium notatum
Fungal Medium used
Asthanahawker’s medium
Composition:
Glucose – 1.25gm
Potassium nitrate – 0.87gm
Potassium di hydro phosphate – 0.42gm
Magnesium sulfate – 0.18gm
Agar-agar – 5gm
Distilled water – 250ml
Chemicals used:
Ethanol (90% v/v)
Methanol (75% v/v)
DMSO (Di Methyl Sulfoxide)
Pencillin