Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Studies of Crude extract of Cow Sandbur and African Foxtail Grasses of Thar Desert

Thar Desert is characterised by extreme temperature and lack of rainfall, vegetation is typically sparse and is comprised of perennial and annual grasses, other herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees. C₄ grasses are best suited to the desertic environmental conditions. Cenchrusis a C₄ perennialgrass and is very much used as fodder in droughty periods of the tropics. In the present study, crude extracts of seeds of Cenchrus ciliaris (CAZRI-358) and Cenchrus setigerus (CAZRI-76) were evaluated against some important bacteria (two Gram+ve and four Gram-ve bacteria): Staphylococcus aureus (Gram+ve), Bacillus subtilis (Gram+ve), Escherichia coli (Gram-ve), Raoultella planticola (Gram-ve), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram-ve), Enterobacter aerogenes (Gram-ve), one yeast Candida albicans and one fungus Aspergillus flavus. The dried and powdered seeds were successively extracted with hexane, toluene, isopropyl alcohol, acetone and ethanol using Soxhlet assembly. The antimicrobial activity assay was done by both disc diffusion and serial dilution methods. Isopropyl alcohol extract of C. setigerus (CAZRI-76) showed highest activity against S. aureus. The inhibitory effect is very identical in magnitude and comparable with that of standard antibiotics used.