Antimicrobial Activity of Crude Extract and Carotenoid Pigments from Flowers

Ms. Ancilla Senoretta B. & Dr. V. Judia Harriet Sumathy
Postgraduate & Research Department of Biotechnology, Women’s Christian College, Chennai – 600 006.

A B S T R A C T
All human pharmaceuticals now in use are originally derived from natural sources. According to studies conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 80% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine. Several important drugs such as Taxol, camptothecin, morphine and quinine have been isolated from plant sources. The first two are widely used as anticancer drugs, while the remaining are analgesic and antimalarial agents, respectively. Some compounds from plants that have been particularly important for human medicine include: morphine from the Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.), aspirin from the White Willow Tree (Salix alba L.), and the anticoagulant coumadin from spoiled sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis L.Pall). Tropical plants such as the Madagascar, or Rosy, Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus L.G.Don) have yielded vinblastine (which has revolutionized the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, turning a disease that was once uniformly fatal into one that can now be totally cured in many patients) and vincristine (which has done the same for acute childhood leukemia). Thus natural sources make a very significant contribution to the health care system. The present study is aimed at studying the Antimicrobial activity of Crude Extract and Carotenoid pigments of selected Flowers of Medical Significance.
Keywords: Pharmaceuticals, WHO, Flowers, Antimicrobial activity and Health Care System.