Deciphering the in vitro Antimicrobial Potential of Some Macrolichens from Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India

Background and Aim

Lichens are reported to possess antimicrobial activities. Therefore, this study was carried out to screen the macro lichens collected from Burachapori wildlife sanctuary such as Ramalina hossei Vain., Ramalina nervulosa (Müll.Arg.) Abbayes, Parmotrema praesorediosum (Nyl.) Hale and Parmotrema tinctorum (Despr. ex Nyl.) Hale against 3 g positive 3 g negative pathogenic bacterial and three fungal strains.

Materials and Methods

Acetone, Chloroform and methanol extracts of the sample were prepared with 2 concentrations (1 mg, 2 mg) in triplicates and Agar well Diffusion method were employed for both the antibacterial and antifungal tests. Ampicillin was used as positive control in antibacterial screening in the concentration of 0.1 mg/mL. Fluconazole used in amount 100 μL as positive control in screening the antifungal activity of the lichen samples.

Results

All the activities showed dose dependent results. Zones are found to be higher at 2 mg/mL when compared to 1 mg/mL. For the antibacterial activity, the range of zone of inhibition was 16.7±0.17 to 28.2±0.15 (in m.m.) and for antifungal activity it was in the range of 17.7±0.55 to 26.4±0.46 (in m.m.). Also it is observed that acetone extracts of all the samples have shown excellent inhibition, whereas methanol extracts have showed moderate effect followed by chloroform extracts.

Conclusion

These results confirm the presence of antimicrobial compounds in the samples and further characterization of these potent antimicrobial compounds can be used as lead molecules against disease causing pathogenic microorganisms.