Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

In-vitro Antimicrobial and Antitumor Activities of Stevia Rebaudiana (Asteraceae) Leaf Extracts.

Sathishkuma Jayaraman , Muthu Saravanan Manoharan, Seethalakshmi Illanchezian

Life Teck Research Centre, Vadapalani, Chennai - 600026, India;

For correspondence:- Sathishkuma Jayaraman Email: jsathishkumar85@gmail.com Tel:+91 97101 68939

Received: 02 July 2008 Accepted: 26 August 2008 Published: 16 December 2008

Citation: Jayaraman S, Manoharan MS, Illanchezian S. In-vitro Antimicrobial and Antitumor Activities of Stevia Rebaudiana (Asteraceae) Leaf Extracts.. Trop J Pharm Res 2008; 7(4):1143-1149 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v7i4.7

© 2008 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the antimicrobial and antitumor activities of Stevia rebaudiana (Asteraceae) leaf extracts.

Methods: Four solvent extracts (ethyl acetate, acetone, chloroform and water) of Stevia rebaudiana leaves were investigated against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Aeromonas hydrophila and Vibrio cholerae by using agar well diffusion method. Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Epidermophyton species were used to test anti-yeast and antifungal activity. The cytotoxic effects of the extracts on Vero and HEp2 cells were assayed using 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide [MTT].

Results: Among the four extracts tested, acetone extract had effective antibacterial potential, followed by ethyl acetate extract. The acetone extract showed greater activity against Gram-positive than against Gram-negative organisms. All the extracts were active against Epidermophyton species and Candida albicans. The 1:8 dilution of the acetone extract was non-toxic to normal cells and also had both anticancer and anti-proliferative activities against cancerous cells.

Conclusion: The study confirms the antimicrobial and antitumor activities of Stevia rebaudiana leaves extracted using various solvents, and is therefore, a potential drug that requires further studies and development.

Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana; Antibacterial; Antifungal; Antitumor; HEp2 cells; MTT assay