Pharmacological Studies of Oxalis Pes-caprae L.

Background: Oxalis pes-caprae is also called as “sourgrass” or soursob. The roots, stems and leaves of Oxalis pes-caprae have high medicinal values and have the function of antiinflammatory and analgesia, clearing heat, removing toxicity. In present study Oxalis pescaprae belonging to family oxalidaceae evaluated for pharmacological activities like cytotoxicity, phtotoxicity, antibacterial and antifungal bioassays. Materials and Methods: Cytotoxic activity was performed by brine shrimp bioassay using methodology of Atta- ur- Rahman et al., 2001. The phytotoxic activity was investigated by applying Lamna minor (as test species) following Atta-ur-Rahman et al., 2001. Anti-bacterial screening was conducted following Rathan (2000). Anti-fungal screening was carried out using agar well diffusion method following Perez et al. (1990) and Atta-ur-Rahman et al. (1991). Results: Its ethanolic extract showed highly significant (100%) cytotoxicity with LD₅₀ 8.98 at 1000 ppm. Lemna minor phytotoxicity assay showed that O. pes-caprae chloroform extract showed 90% inhibition at 1000 ppm with FI₅₀ 0.1048. Antibacterial bioassays showed that all the samples of the plant were significant against Xanthomonas, Clavibacter machengnitis and Bacillus at 1000, 1500 and 2500 ppm doses. Dose dependent antifungal activities against test species (Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium and Fusarium solani) were noticed for all the extracts at 100 and 1000 ppm. Conclusion: Pharmacological potentials showed that this plant can be used in upcoming time for extracting numerous active constituents for their pharmacological preparations.