PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IN-VITRO EVALUATION OF ANTI-OXIDANT AND ANTI-BACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids, which have been found to have medicinal properties. Antibacterial properties of various plant parts like root, stem, leaves, seeds, flowers have been well documented for some of the medicinal plants over the past decades. In present investigation some of traditionally used plants as food have been used to determine the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties (Aegle marmelos leaf, Santalum album leaf, Allium cepa leaf, Citrus limon leaf, Piper nigrum seed, Syzygium aromaticum bud, Cuminum cyminum seed, Trigonella foenum-graecum seed, Trigonella foenum-graecum stem, Hordeum vulgare seed). These plant extracts were tested for its antioxidant properties and also it antimicrobial activity against clinically isolated human pathogens (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia sps). It was found that all the plants were positive for presence of phenols, proteins, flavanoids and alkaloids and negative for anthraquinones. Antioxidant studies revealed maximum activity for Syzygium aromaticum bud, Citrus limon leaf, Piper nigrum seed, and Cuminum cyminum seed, and was found to be minimum for Hordeum vulgare seeds. Antimicrobial activity results showed maximum activity for Aegle marmelos leaf, Citrus lemon leaf, Cuminum cyminum seed and Allium cepa leaf extract against Serratia sps, Santalum album leaf extract against Staphylococcus aureus. The Maximum activity was seen for Syzygium aromaticum bud and Piper nigrum seed extract against all the test pathogens.