Full Length Research Paper

Antitumor and antimicrobial activities and inhibition of in-vitro lipid peroxidation by Dendrobium nobile

P. Uma Devi¹, S. Selvi², D. Devipriya³, S. Murugan³ and S. Suja³

¹School of Biotechnology, Karunya University, Coimbatore-14 .Tamilnadu, India.

²Department of Biotechnology, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam. Tamilnadu, India.

³Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Dr. N.G.P. Arts and Science College, Coimbatore-35, Tamilnadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: umadevipongiya@rediffmail.com.

Accepted 25 February, 2008

The aim of the study was to determine the antitumor and antimicrobial activities as well as the inhibition of in vitro lipid peroxidation evoked by Dendrobium nobile. Antimicrobial activity of different solvent extracts of flowers and stem of D. nobile against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus, Salmonella typhi and Staphylococcus aureus were analyzed separately. The swiss albino mice were induced with Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) cell lines and the antitumor effect of D. nobile  was studied by administering  orally the aqueous extracts of the flowers of D. nobile. The antitumor activity was measured in DLA cell line induced mice. Inhibition of in vitro lipid peroxidation activity of the D. nobile in both liver homogenate and RBC ghosts was also carried out. The aqueous extracts of stem and flower of D. nobile showed better zone of bacterial inhibition than that of ethanol and chloroform extracts. The plant extracts treated DLA cell induced mice showed better tumor regression, and the flowers of the plant inhibited the in vitro lipid peroxidation, significantly. The present work indicates that the D. nobile flower extracts possessed antimicrobial and antitumor properties in addition to antiperoxidative activity.

Key words: Antimicrobial activity, antitumor activity, Dendrobium nobile, DLA cell line, lipid peroxidation inhibition.