Abstract:
Xanthium strumarium L. (Family: Compositae) a medicinal plant commonly found as a weed, is
widely distributed in North America, Brazil, China, Malaysia and hotter parts of India. The aim
of this study is to extract and isolate the main component(s) and the antibacterial activities
from the leaves and seed extract of xanthium strumarium L. Extraction and isolation of the crude
extract through column chromatography by increasing polarity of the solvent system n-hexane,
chloroform, acetone and methanol gives 45 fractions and three of them showed single spots in
different solvent systems on TLC whereas the other showed more than two spots on TLC under
different solvent system. The other method used for the extraction of the leaves of X. strumarium
L. was soxhlet method and the solvent used were acetone and methanol from this the acetone
crude of seed was pure on TLC on under different solvent system. The preliminary
phytochemical screening tests of the crude methanol extract showed the presence of alkaloids,
flavonoids, terpenoids, Saponins, tannins, phenols, glycosides and steroids and the acetone
fraction showed only terpenoids. Methanolic crude extract of leaves of X. strumarium L. showed
good zone of inhibition with Escherichia coli, staphylococusaureus, salmonelatyphi, klebsilla
pneumonia, and it was more effective against Escherichia coli and staphylococusaureus (15mm,
14mm) respectively and the acetone fraction showed effective inhibition zone on Escherichia coli,
staphylococusaureus, klebsilla pneumonia(14mm,12mm,14mm) and has moderate inhibition
zone on salmonelatyphi(7mm) respectively . The other crude which is the acetone oil crude
extract of the seed of X. strumarium L. showed less inhibition zone on the four bacteria but has
moderate inhibition zone on the staphylococusaureus (10mm) as compared to the gentamycin
