Antituberculor activity of curcuminoids isolated from Curcuma longa rhizomes

Medicinal plants and their isolated Phyto-constituents offer a hope for developing alternate medicines for the treatment of microbial diseases especially tuberculosis. The present research work aimed to isolate and purify curcuminoids from Curcuma longa rhizomes extract and evaluated for anti-tuberculosis studies. The Curcuma longa rhizomes were collected, authenticated and processed for isolation, separation and purification of curcumminoids by using TLC, column chromatography, UV and analyzed by HPLC. The purified curcuminoids, evaluated for Anti-tubercular activity by Microplate Alamar Blue assay (MABA) and Lowenstein Jensen (L-J) medium. Studies on evaluation of anti-tubercular activity including multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR) were performed by using standard compounds such as Rifampicin, Ethambutol and Streptomycin. Preliminary phytochemical and pharmacognostical screening of Curcuma longa rhizomes showed the resence of various secondary metabolites. Various solvent at different polarity were pre-tested in TLC for separation of curcuminoids, chloroform: ethanol at 95:5 showed better resolution of Rf value at 0.75, 0.55, 0.27, as Curcumin (C), Demethoxycurcumin (DMC), Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) respectively. The purified curcuminoids fractions were obtained by silica gel column chirography and quantity by using UV. The whole extracts and isolated compounds (fractions), individually, exhibited, anti-tuberculosis activity, the proportion of inhibition of these phyto-constituents for M. tuberculosis strain, inhibition was found to be at concentrations such as 12.5μg/ml, 25μg/ml, 50μg/ml, etc. The extracts and fractions of curcuminoids individually showed significant anti-tubercular activity. The curcuminoids showed greater activity as compared to whole plant extracts.