S685 Document heading doi: 襂2012 by the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease. All rights reserved. Evaluation of selected Indian traditional folk medicinal plants against Mycobacterium tuberculosis with antioxidant and cytotoxicity study. Tawde K. V 1 ., Gacche R. N 1* , Pund M. M 2 1 Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded (M. S.), India. 2 Department of Botany, Indira Gandhi (Sr.) College, CIDCO, Nanded (M. S.), India. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease (2012)S685-S691 Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease journal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/apjtd *Corresponding author: Corresponding Author's Institution: Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, S. R. T. M. University, Nanded (M. S.), India. Tel: 09423656179 1. Introduction Tuberculosis (TB) is known since antiquity and evidence of spinal TB in the form of fossil bones dates back to around 8000 BC [1, 2] . In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this chronic disease to be a ‘global emergency’ [3] . Still today TB remains to be the most prevalent cause of death in developing countries, due to a single infectious agent [4] . In India, TB kills 14 times more people than all tropical diseases. There are more than 4.5 million TB cases with 1.8 million new cases being reported each year. Approximately 50% of India’s population is reported to be tuberculin test positive [5] , and one person dies from TB every minute [6] . TB requires a lengthy treatment period of six months with the cocktail of first-line drugs rifampicin, isoniazid, ethambutol and pyrazinamide [7] . If the treatment fails as a result of bacterial drug resistance, or intolerance to one or more drugs, second-line drugs are used, such as para-aminosalicylate (PAS), kanamycin, fluoroquinolones, capreomycin, ethionamide and cycloserine, that are generally either less effective or more toxic with serious side effects [8] . The use or in most cases misuse of these drugs over the years has led to an increasing prevalence of multiple-drug resistance (MDR) strains. MDR-TB resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid, now exceeds 0.5 million cases per year and in some states accounts for up to 22% of TB ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 15 April 2011 Received in revised form 27 April 2011 Accepted 28 June 2011 Available online 28 June 2011 Keywords: Medicinal Plants Mycobacterium anti TB antioxidant cytotoxicity Objective: To evaluate different solvent extracts of selected Indian traditional medicinal plant against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, its antioxidant potential and cytotoxicity. Methods: Acacia catechu (L.) Willd (Root extract) and Ailanthus excelsa Roxb., leaf extracts of Aegle marmelos Corr., Andrographis paniculata Nees. and Datura metel L. were sequentially extracted in water, ethanol, chloroform and hexane and evaluated for their anti-tuberculosis (TB) activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis using agar diffusion assay. The zone of inhibition ( at 20 and 40 mg/ ml) was measured and MIC were calculated. The results were compared with Rifampicin as a standard anti TB drug. The extracts were also evaluated for DPPH and OH radical scavenging activities to understand their antioxidant potential. MTT based cytotoxicity assay was used for evaluating cytotoxicity of the selected samples against Chang liver cells. Results: The selected botanicals were sequentially extracted in water, ethanol, chloroform and hexane and tested for growth inhibition of M. tuberculosi. The hexane extract of A. catechu root and ethanol extract of A. paniculata leaf showed promising activity against M. tuberculosis while remaining extracts showed moderate anti TB activity. The samples were found to possess considerable DPPH and OH radical scavenging activities with no demonstrable cytotoxicity against Chang liver cells. Conclusions: Five traditional medicinal plants were selected for the present study. The selection of medicinal plants was based on their traditional usage for the treatment of tuberculosis, asthma and chronic respiratory diseases. Herein we report for the first time, the anti TB activity of root extracts of Acacia catechu and Ailanthus excelsa while leaf extract of Andrographis paniculata, Aegle marmelos and Datura metel. The study holds importance in the midst of multi drug resistance (MDR) crisis in the TB management, since it unravels the scientific basis of use of these plant species for the management of TB and related disorders which will be useful for searching the lead compounds from natural products as potential antimycobacterial agents. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect