ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF WHITE AND PINK NELUMBO NUCIFERA GAERTN FLOWERS

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn (Family: Nelumbonaceae), medicinally versatile and used as an important raw material of age-old traditional medical practices like Ayurveda and folk medicine. Bioassays for antimicrobial activities were carried out using hydroethanolic extract of both white and pink flowers of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn plant. Both the flower extracts were tested against five important bacterial strains and two fungal strains. Further, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) was evaluated against Escherichia coli (gram negative) and Staphylococcus aureus (gram positive) organisms. Both the flower extracts showed considerable activity against all tested bacteria and fungi strains. The white and pink flower extracts more or less showed similar antimicrobial activities. MIC for white flower extract against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was found to be 430 mu g and 450 mu g respectively and pink flower showed 480 mu g and 490 mu g respectively. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of both flower extracts were comparable to those of selected chemical antibiotics suggesting their potential as alternatives to orthodox antibiotics in the treatment of infectious caused by these microorganisms.