COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HERBAL AGENTS USED FOR FUMIGTATION IN RELATIONS TO FORMULATION(*)

The study assess some herbal agents used for fumigations as listed in Ayurvedic literature for various applications. Here coarse powder of 19 freshly collected and dried herbal agents were used for fumigating a room of about 594 cu .ft. volume. Air samples were collected using Nutrient Agar plates just before , 15 minutes and 45 minutes after fumigation from both ground and top. Assessment of the agent was done by means of colony counts after incubation of air samples . In relation to Formaline (disinfection by 100%) all the herbal agents have reduced the microbial colony counts in air samples considerably. Five agents were markedly effective in destroying micro-organisms in ground samples while the rest have disinfected significantly the top samples. Potent disinfection was seen with “Devadāru” and in line “Apamārga” stands second while “Sarsapa” has reduced aeroganic micro-organisms.