256IN VITRO SCREENING OF LYOPHILISED EXTRACTS OF ALPINIA GALANGA L. AND OLDENLANDIA UMBELLATA L. FOR ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL ACTIVITYTuberculosis remains a global public health problem in developing countries. The increasing incidence of MDR- and XDR-tuberculosis worldwide highlight the urgent need to search for newer anti-tuberculosis compounds/drugs. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that approximately 80% of world population relies mainly on traditional medicines, mainly plant drugs in their health care. The higher plant extracts are promising sources of novel anti-tuberculosis leads. Screening and estimation of anti – mycobacterial activity of lyophilised aqueous, aqueous ethanolic and ethanolic extracts of Alpinia galanga L. and Oldenlandia umbellata L. to standard strain H37Rv, clinical isolate of Isoniazid mono resistant and poly resistant isolates by the sensitive and reliable Broth Microdilution Method (BMM). The lyophilised extracts of rhizomes of A. galanga possessed antimycobacterial activity at a concentration of 250 μg/ml onwards. While the extracts of O. umbellata did not inhibit the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis even at 500 μg/ml. The extracts were nontoxic to VERO cells with a maximal toxic free concentration on vero cells at 300µg/ml. The study demonstrated that ethanolic extract from A. galanga could be evaluated further that might provide compounds for developing a drug to control M. tuberculosis.drsrajarajan@gmail.comResearch462013 Antimycobacterial activity,Broth Microdilution Method,Alpinia galanga,Oldenlandia umbellate,cytotoxicity,VERO cellsSoundhari C,Rajarajan SPG & Research Department of Microbiology & Biotechnology, Presidency College, Chennai -5, Tamil Nadu, India.,PG & Research Department of Microbiology & Biotechnology, Presidency College, Chennai -5, Tamil Nadu, India.