Investigation of antibacterial activity against Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and selected pharmacological properties of Panchawalkala: An Ayurvedic formulation

Panchawalkala is a poly-herbal formulation comprising of equal parts of the dried stem barks of five medicinal plants named, Ficus benghalensis, Ficus racemosa, Ficus religiosa, Ficus tsiela and Garcinia cambogia. The direct aqueous and sequential organic extracts of Panchawalkala were obtained by 3 extraction procedures to represent hot and cold conditions. The preliminary antibacterial screening was carried out using Cut-well diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using micro-broth dilution assay. The antioxidant activity was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)radical. The highest antibacterial activity was demonstrated by the hot aqueous extract obtained by the reflux method. Both sequential methanol extracts (Soxhlet method and Bottle-shaker method) and hot aqueous extract demonstrated high DPPH radical scavenging activity compared to L-ascorbic acid and other tested solvent extracts.