ANTIMICROBIAL AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITIES OF TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA (FAM: MENISPERMACEAE)

Tinospora cordifolia, belonging to the Menispermaceae family, has been investigated for isolation of its secondary metabolites and evaluation of biological activities with special emphasis to the antimicrobial screening and cytotoxic study. The crude methanolic extract of Tinospora cordifolia along with its Pet ether, carbon tetrachloride, and chloroform soluble fractions were subjected to microbiological investigation by the disk diffusion method. The CCl4 soluble fraction was found to have mild to moderate anti-microbial action. In the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the Pet ether, CCl4, chloroform and aqueous soluble fractions of crude methanolic extract were found to show LC50 1.918 mu g/ml, 0.402 mu g/ml, 0.691. g/ml and 2.246 mu g/ml respectively. This indicated that the carbon tetrachloride and chloroform fractions were highly cytotoxic.