ABSTRACT:
Medicinal plants are the richest source of novel bioactive compounds to combat several ailments since time immemorial. In light of vast potentiality of medicinal plants as therapeutics the present investigation deals with the assessment of the antifungal efficacy of Urginea indica (Kunth.) (Family: Liliaceae) from Bastar region, commonly known as jungli-piyaz, against two human pathogenic fungi vic. Aspergillus niger (MTCC 872) and Candida albicans (MTCC 183) procured from IMTECH, Chandigarh. The activity assessment profile revealed that the acetone root extract exhibited broad spectrum antifungal potentiality against both the fungi. However, in case of C. albicans the extract showed significantly higher activity index. The potent extract exhibiting the highest antifungal activity was purified by column chromatography and the band pattern of the crude and purified extracts was analyzed by TLC. The bioefficacy of the purified extract was assessed against pathogenic fungi and the MIC and MBC were determined. Finally, the purified extract showing activity was chemically characterized with the help of HPLC, UV-VIS, FT-IR, NMR ('H & "C) and ESI-MS and was found to be a phytosterol. This phytosterol tested for its synergistic or antagonistic potentiality against both fungi revealed that the bioactive compound exhibited statistically significant synergism with three different commercially available antifungals viz. clotrimazole, ketoconazole and fluconazole, more so in case of C albicans. However, the combination also exhibited antagonistic behavior in some of the cases.