GC-MS profiling and anti-bacterial activity of Thuja orientalis in reference of plant biodiversity

Abstract

Thuja orientalis (Commonly-Morpankhi, Family-Cupressaceae) is an evergreen, monoecious trees or shrubs used in various forms of traditional medicines and homeopathy in various ways. In traditional practices Thuja is used for treatment of bronchial catarrh, enuresis, cystitis, psoriasis, uterine carcinomas, amenorrhea and rheumatism. The present work was designed to investigate the phytochemical constituents with GC-MS analysis and to establish the antibacterial property of the plant extract against the bacterial pathogens, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus for which Thuja orientalis plant has been significantly used as a multidrug constituent. It is evident from the results of GC-MS analysis that hydroalcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis aerial parts obtained from wild areas of different states Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh showed various resolutions of peaks with retention time. The each peak in GC-MS profile of hydroalcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis aerial parts represent maximum area under the curve in Tamil Nadu sample followed by Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh samples. These observations suggest that Tamil Nadu sample of Thuja orientalis aerial parts contained higher amount of phytoconstituents than Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh samples. The results of antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli showed that hydroalcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis aerial parts collected from Tamil Nadu exhibited higher antimicrobial activity followed by plant collected from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh as compared to standard drugs. The exhaustive survey of literature suggested that flavonoids such as quercetin, rutin, luteolin and naringenin have been scientifically claimed as potential antimicrobial activity, so it may be concluded that antimicrobial activity of hydroalcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis aerial parts may be due to presence of phenolic and flavonoids.