Dataset of Leucas aspera Leaf Extract in Medicinal Uses
Description
This dataset consists of raw images reporting the effect of antimicrobial of Leucas aspera leaf extract against bacterial cultures on nutrient agar. The two-part compilation includes photographs of treated and untreated control plates, which allows one to visually assess growth inhibition and colony morphology. It improves previously available phytochemical and pharmacological research on Leucas aspera by providing photographic data on its in-vitro effectiveness. The images can aid the scientific community - researchers could measure the zones of inhibition, optimize image-processing protocols, or train and publish machine learning models that could classify colony patterns on agar plates. Furthermore, the dataset enables optimization of extraction methods - allowing performance comparison of alternative plant-derived antimicrobials. Hence, it has great value from the educational perspective and teaching microbiological procedures and plant-based antimicrobial testing, i.e. the dataset can be used in several applications in fields of natural product pharmacology, image analysis studies, and microbiology education.
Files
Steps to reproduce
Plant material and extract preparation: The plants that belonged to the Leucas aspera species were collected during the flowering stage; fresh leaves were washed using tap water thoroughly and then shade-dried. The leaves were crushed by hand after drying till they formed a fine powder and then ethanolically (absolute ethanol or 99.5 % v/v) extracted by maceration for few days at room temperature. This was filtered and then the solvent was removed by a reduced pressure producing a crude ethanolic extract. Bacterial culture and agar plating: The bacteria isolates recovered were cultured in nutrient broth overnight and then adjusted to a standard inoculum density. The nutrient agar plates (sterile, 90 mm diameter) were spread with 100 µL bacterial suspension evenly by which the surface inoculation was carried out. On every agar plate, a 6 mm well or sterile paper disc was kept at the center. 50 µL of Leucas aspera extract solution was pipetted onto the treated plates, while control plates received solvent only. The plates were incubated upside-down at 37 °C for 24 hours. Data acquisition (imaging): After incubation, the plates were photographed overhead using a digital camera on a stand so that distance and light consistently remained the same. A neutral or white background was used and exposure of the camera was fixed so as to avoid distorting glare. The photographs thus produced were saved in the form of unaltered JPEG files. No post-production-either digital enhancement or zone measurement-was done to the photos before they were uploaded. Quality control: A patterned analysis of the pictures was done to confirm that colonies and inhibition areas could be easily identified. Any samples showing trace contamination or growth with poorly resolved morphologies were discarded, leaving the final data consisting of only good-quality images that were diagnosed as control and extract-treated plates.
Institutions
- BMS College of Engineering
- K S Institute of Technology