Nematicidal and antimicrobial evaluation of extracts and nanoparticles

As part of this thesis, one remarkable plant of the 17 plants studied in our lab, namely Solanum incanum, was studied further in a different way by "nanosizing of original plant materials" in an attempt to explore and find another alternative way to extensive extraction and isolation procedures. This plant after drying and powdering, has further been milled to more or less uniform particles of microscopic and nanoscopic size. These particles have been tested against model nematodes (Steinernema feltiae) and bacteria (Escherichia coli). They exhibited activity against Steinernema feltiae, which is comparable to the one seen for processed extracts of the same respective plant. Dendrosicyos socotranus (Cucumber plant) was also studied as part of this thesis. This plant has been phytochemically screened and partitioned for identification of phytochemicals present affecting the above mentioned worms and microorganisms according to its traditional use. The fractionation process was performed and several fractions of the methanolic extract from D. socotranus leaves were obtained and tested against S. feltiae, Staphylococcus carnosus, E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.