Studies on the elemental composition and anti fungal activity of medicinal plant Lippia nodiflora L against skin mycosis

Abstract

Background Lippia nodiflora L, an indigenous herb has many medicinal uses.Objective Present work was carried out to study the antifungal activity of crude extracts of L.nodiflora L. against the human pathogenic fungi.Materials and methods Crude extracts from the leaves and shoots of plant were prepared indifferent solvents including ethanol, methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform and water and testedfor antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger, A.. flavus, Paecilomyces varioti,Microsporum gypseum, and Trichophyton rubrum. Concentration of various elements e.g. Al,Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, P, S and Zn were determined by using atomic absorptionspectrophotometer and UV spectrophotometer.Results All crude extracts including ethanol, methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform and aqueousextracts showed high activity against test organisms. Ethanol and aqueous extracts appearedto be the most effective antifungal agents as compared to methanol, chloroform and ethylacetate. Moreover, the plant L. nodiflora L has high concentration of various essentialelements.Conclusion The medicinal plant Lippia nodiflora L contains considerable amount ofelements which are important component of many formulation, used in skin care.