Evaluation of the Antibacterial Potential of Rhododendron arboretum Flower Extract against Pathogenic Bacteria

Rhododendron arboreum is an evergreen plant and widely distributed in Himalyas from Kashmir to Nagaland at an altitude ranging from 1500-5500 meter and this is one of the plant that have great economical and medicinal importance.Rhododendron arboreum is also called burans or gurans.There are more than one thousand species of Rhododendron in worldwide. R.arboreum plant used for the treatment of various human diseases which include the infectious diseases caused by microorganisms. R.arboreum was analyses for the antibacterial activity. Antibacterial activity of the methanol, acetone, chloroform, petroleum ether and aqueous extract of R.arboreum used against the microorganism gram+ve and gram-ve strains. The antibacterial activity was evaluated by measuring the zone of inhibition using disc diffusion method. The chemical constituents of R.arboreum are hollocelluse, hemicelluloses,alpha-cellulose, pentosans,lignins and fatty acids are butonic acid,pentonoic acid,4-heptanoic acid. The inhibition activity of flower extract of R.arboreum was absorbed on gram+ve bacteria i.e Mycobacterium bacillus (8.90 ± 0.00mm zone) at 30mlmethanolic extract and gram –ve bacteria i.e Pseudomonas salmonella (9.20 ± 2.00 mm zone) at 30ml chloroform extract. Using various solvents, petroleum ether showed no inhibitory effect while methanol, acetone and chloroform extracts was quite effective against all pathogens even in low concentration. The present review is an effort to give the detailed survey of literature on its pharmacognosy, phytochemistry and pharmacological uses of plant under study.