Abstract

EVALUATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS AND IN VITRO ANTI-BACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF THE BARK EXTRACTS OF ADENANTHERA PAVONINA L

Somani Jethi* and Kunja Bihari Satapathy

Abstract

Adenanthera pavonina L. (Fabaceae) commonly called as red sandalwood is a deciduous tree and its bark is traditionally used for treatment of various disease conditions such as gonorrhoea, hematuria, ulcers etc. The objective of the present study was to investigate the hidden antibacterial potential of Adenanthera pavonina L. against some selected bacterial human pathogenic strains. The research work was conducted in the Microbiology Research Laboratory of Post Graduate Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Five bacterial strains i.e. Escherichia coli (MTCC-614), Shigella flexneri (MTCC- 9543), Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC-1430), Salmonella paratyphi (MTCC-3220) and Salmonella enteric typhi (MTCC-733) were used in the study. The study revealed that methanolic extract of A. pavonina was most potent and exhibited the highest zone of inhibition against Shigella flexneri at 6 mg/ml which was quite comparable with reference antibiotic - Ciprofloxacin (0.5 mg/ml). The n-hexane extract was moderately effective against all the test bacteria. Phyto-chemical analysis showed that the bark of the plant contained various constituents like flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids and triterpenoid. The presence of these phyto-constituents indicated that the bark extracts of Adenanthera pavonina might be a source for a new drug against diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery and needs further investigation.

Keywords: Adenanthera pavonina, anti-bacterial activity, phyto-chemical analysis, Ciprofloxacin.