Chemical fingerprinting and antibacterial activity of Saussurea lappa clarke

Costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone of Saussurea lappa are the active compounds having various biological activities used in medicine. HPLC and HPTLC were used for chemical profiling of S. lappa samples collected from different geographical regions of Uttarakhand, India. Costunolide was found to be 0.19 to 0.39% and 0.25 to 0.56% while dehydrocostus lactone was reported in the ranges of 0.27 to 0.70 and 0.50 to 1.06% by HPLC and HPTLC, respectively. Antibacterial activity of methanol extracts of S. lappa was evaluated in order to compare the effects of active constituents against gram positive and negative bacteria. It was determined by well diffusion method. S. lappa exhibited inhibitory effect on bacterial strains with the MICs ranging from 3.12 to 12.50 μg/μL for Escherichia coli and Citrobacter freundii, from 6.25 to 25.00 μg/μL for Enterococcus faecalis and from 6.25 to 50.00 μg/μL for Staphylococcus aureus. It was observed that the samples of S. lappa containing the higher contents of costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone showed the higher antibacterial activity. The results demonstrated that concentrations of both active constituents depended on altitude at which the collected plants were located.