PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECTS OF SOME INDIGENOUSMEDICINAL PLANTS

Azadirachta indica, Aegle marmelos, Citrus sinensis and Emblica officinalis are well known in India and its neighboring countries for more than 2000 years as the most versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological and phytochemical activities. The use of medicinal plants in the industrialized societies has been traced to extraction and development of several drugs and chemotherapeutics from these plants as well as from traditionally used rural herbal remedies. Alkaloids were isolated from the leaves of Azadirachta indica, fruits of Aegle marmelos, peel of Citrus sinensis, fruits of Emblica officinalis to see their anti bacterial and anti fungal activities and were found very effective against the fungal isolates Candida albicans and Phytophthora parasitica and bacterial isolates Xanthomonas axonopodis. Presence of alkaloids was confirmed by using Mayer’s reagents.