Abstract:
Petroleum ether (Pet. ether) and Chloroform (CHCl
3) solvent extracts were prepared from
Calophyllum inophyllum L. leaves for testing bioactive potentiality and were assessed against brine shrimp (
Artemia salina) for cytotoxicity, against larvae of
Culex quinquefasciatus for larvicidal activity; against eggplant aphid (
Aphis gossypii) and black bean aphid (
Aphis fabae) for repellent activity; and against five pathogenic bacteria and three pathogenic fungi for anti-microbial activity tests. Both the extracts exposed propitious results through brine shrimp lethality assay where Pet. ether extract found most effective with LC
50 values 1413.490, 384.766 and 37.562ppm for 12, 18 and 24h of exposure respectively against
A. salina. These two extracts showed promising larvicidal activity against the first instar larvae of
Culex quinquefasciatus where CHCl
3 extract was more active with LC
50 values 237.034, 75.492 and 28.783ppm in compare to Pet. ether extract with LC
50 values 1854.121, 418.648 and 42.675ppm for 18, 24 and 30h of exposure respectively. In case of repellency test Pet. ether extract found moderately active (
P<0.01) against eggplant aphid (
Aphis gossypii) and weakly active (
P<0.05) against black bean aphid (
Aphis fabae) where CHCl
3 extract found weakly active (
P<0.05) and inactive against eggplant aphid and black bean aphid respectively. The similar extracts were also propitious against five pathogenic bacteria (
Agrobacterium sp., Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae and Staphylococcus aureus) at concentrations of 200 and 400μg/disc along with a standard Penicillin 30μg/disc and three pathogenic fungi (
Aspergillus niger,
Candida sp. and
Saccharomyces sp.) at concentrations of 50 and 200μg/disc along with a standard Nystatin 10μg/disc. Between the two extracts Pet. ether showed promising antibacterial and antifungal activities with the zone of inhibition 16 and 20mm; and 6 and 14mm against
Sh. dysenteriae bacterium and
Candida sp
. fungal strains in comparison to standard penicillin (30μg/disc) and standard Nystatin (10μg/disc) with the inhibition zone of 30 and 7mm respectively. The results showed the potential use of
C. inophyllum leaf extracts to control
aphids, mosquito larvae, bacteria and fungi.