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This study was designed to explore new antioxidant and antimicrobial agents from the methanol whole plant crude extract and fractions of Plantago rugelii. The methanol extract and its fractions were prepared and screened for its phytochemical composition, in-vitro antioxidant potential and challenged with common pathogenic microorganisms for its antimicrobial activities using standard procedures. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of various pharmaceutically active secondary metabolites like alkaloids, phenolic, flavonoids, carbohydrates, glycosides, sterols, etc. In the DPPH assay, the aqueous methanol fraction was found to be the most effective among all the fractions in comparison to the ascorbic acid standard. Using the zone of inhibition as inhibitory parameter, the crude methanol extract exhibited the best antibacterial activity when challenged against all the clinical isolates except Klebsiella pneumoniae. The aqueous methanol extract exhibited the best percentage fungal inhibition when compared to other fractions. The standard drugs ciprofloxacin and fluconazole exhibited a near 100% activity except with Proteus vulgaris where the crude methanol extract has a higher value.This research holds promise for the exploration of various potentially active secondary metabolites which would help in developing pharmaceuticals, especially antioxidant and antimicrobial drugs. The isolation and characterization of the exact metabolites responsible for these activities is therefore recommended.

Ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin formed an amber coloured complex with iron(III) nitrate nonahydrate. The complex, which formed instantaneously at room temperature, was stable. The solutions of the complex obeyed Beer's law at 370 nm, the wavelength of maximum absorption of radiation (lambda[max]). The A(1%) for norfloxacin, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin was 202, 207 and 235 respectively. The formation of the complex was the basis for the quantitative and qualitative determination of the drugs. There was statistically no significant difference (P < 0.05) between the results obtained quantitatively by this colorimetric method and those obtained by the microbiological assay method.

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