Andrographis paniculata Nees.,a member of the family Acanthaceae is a plant commonly used by the local people, for the treatment of common cold, liver diseases, snake bite and some skin infection. The aerial part of the plant was screened for their phytochemical properties and antimicrobial activity. Antimicrobial activity of leaf extract of Andrographis paniculata, was studied using different solvent like chloroform, methanol, petroleum ether and water against bacterial strains like Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli by disc diffusion method. Methanolic extract showed maximum inhibitory action against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis respectively. Results of the phytochemical screening showed that steroids, phenols, terpenoids, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids were the active compounds present in the plant. The plant is traditionally used for the treatment of antibacterial, antioxidant, antidiabatic, antipyretic, hepatoprotective and several infectious diseases ranging from malaria to dysentery. The medicinal value of this plant is due to the presence of active ingredients viz andrographolide and neoandrographolide which are derivatives of diterpenoids. It is a potent scavenger of a variety of reactive oxygen species including superoxide anion, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide. The anti-oxidant activity was determined by DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method. Total antioxidant capacity were determined spectrophotometrically.

Nanotechnology has offered enormous improvement in field of therapeutics by means of designing of nano-carriers that can cross biological barriers and are able to target cellular reservoirs. The aim of the present investigation was to formulate and evaluate Niosomes, a synthetic microscopic non-ionic surfactant vesicles formed on the admixture of a non-ionic surfactant, cholesterol and phosphate with subsequent hydration in aqueous media. The delivery of drugs by "vesicular drug delivery system" such as niosomes provides several important advantages over conventional drug therapy. Ofloxacin was selected as a suitable drug for the present study because it is a potent secondgeneration fluoroquinolone active against a broad range of gram positive and gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. In the present investigation three formulations of Niosomal drug delivery system of ofloxacin with non ionic surfactant, span 60, in various proportions were prepared and evaluated for Morphological characterization, Encapsulation efficiency, In-vitro drug release study. The Ofloxacin niosomes were prepared by lipid film hydration method. The prepared ofloxacin niosomes showed a vesicle size of 100-300 nm, the entrapment efficiency was 78.4%. The partition coefficient value of ofloxacin was found to be 0.5.

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