Lepidium draba (hoary cress).

Lepidium draba is found in a wide range of habitats ranging from roadsides (highly disturbed sites) to rangelands, meadows and pastures, cultivated fields, home gardens, national parks and wasteland. It exists at high and low latitudes, above and below sea level. It is found under irrigation and in soils of high moisture content and also exists in arid regions. It invades all soil types, although it prefers alkaline conditions and can germinate in saline soils. All of these characteristics and adaptations provide exceptional advantages for this noxious weed and reflect its high potential to invade different agricultural systems. The absence of L. draba plants from plantations or sites where it has not been reported may not be due to the species' ability to invade, survive, grow or develop in these sites but rather to the absence of initial infestation. The weed can invade both agricultural and natural ecosystems (Larson et al., 2000). In summary, L. draba is a serious threat to agriculture and the environment. It is of a high ecological tolerance and is potentially harmful to human and animal health. Its ability to invade and reproduce by different means and to host plant pathogenic agents make this weed invasive with significant problems to man and natural resources.

ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES AND ASSOCIATION AMONG PLANT GROWTH RELATED TRAITS OF LEPIDIUM DRABA

The Lepidium draba or white tope also known as hoary cress belongs to family Brassicaceae, has been known as one of the perennial herbs which grow normally from seeds and also produced horizontal long creeping roots. It normally grows as a weed plant in farm fields. The present study was conducted to find out the antibacterial and antioxidant activities along with the plant traits of Lepidium draba. The shoot, root and inflorescence extracts were taken through using ethanol, water and n-hexan as extraction solvents. It was found from our studies that the plant extracts were heaving alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, coumarins, anthocyans, quinons, steroids, sterols and terpenoids as potential phenolic compounds. The bacterial strains including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus were cultured to access the antibacterial activities of plant extracts. The higher antibacterial activity was reported from n-hexan extract which indicate that the n-hexan extract may be used for extracting phytochemicals to be used as potential antibacterial biomedicines. The water extract showed higher antioxidant activities as compared with ethanol and n-hexan extracts which indicated that the use of water extract may be as a useful antioxidant under stress conditions, may also have anticancer activities. The lower coefficient of variation was recorded for all of the studied traits which indicated the consistency of results and reliability of selecting plants from various locations. There was significant and positive correlation among plant height with inflorescence weight, leaf area and leaf length, the inflorescence weight showed positive correlation with plant height, lea length and leaf area. There was higher contribution of plant height while leaf area contributed lower and negatively towards fresh plant weight. We have concluded from our study that the Lepidium draba plant extract showed antibacterial and antioxidant activities through using ethanol, water and n-hexan as extraction solvents. The significant correlation and regression associations indicated that the plants can tolerate harsh environmental conditions.

Study The Antimicrobial Activity of Ethanolic Extract of Lepidium draba on Some Skin Infectious Agents

Background: medicinal plants are abundant in phytochemicals, which represent the richest bioresource of drugs are used against various diseases. Objective: The present study included an in-vitro antimicrobial investigation for one of wild Iraqi plant Lepidium draba on some skin infectious agents. Methods: The fresh aerial plant parts were macerated in 80% ethanol and subjected to phytochemical general test to investigate the plant active contents. Totat flavonoids were isolated through plant reflex in acidic aqeous solution to obtain the aglycone flavonoids using ethylacetate as an organic solvent. Qualification and quantification of the isolated total flavonoids were done in coressponding to standard s flavonoids. An antimicrobial activity for the crud ethanolic extract and the isolated total flavonoids had been carried out on some skin infectous agents using the following strain: Staph aureus, Pseudomoneus aerogenosa and Candida albicans. Results: the outcome showed that the plant contain major active constituent included flavonoids Tannins, polysaccharides, alkaloids,saponines and Polyphenolic compounds.The plant contains many types of flavonoids including Rutin, Qurecetin, Kampferol and Luteolin, and each 100 g fresh aerial parts will contain 28 mg total flavonoids. The amount of each type of flavonoids were detected by HPLC technique. the extracted flavonoids at concentation of 4mg/ml showed potent effect upon the gram bacteria negative pseudomonas aeruginosa which is known to be more virulence than the gram positive strains but has no effect on Staphylococcus aureus. Also the extracted flavonoids appeared to be affected against the Candida albicans growth. Conclusion: the ethanolic extractv of locally plant L.draba is effecient to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and decrease the chances of skin infection that provided the justification for therapeutic potential as supplementary or alternative medicine.