Abstract

EVALUATION OF THE PHYTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF CAJANUS CAJAN LEAVES

Aminah M. Abedelgahyoum, Abdelkarim M. Abdelkarim, Mohammed E. A. Shayoub and Zuheir Osman*

Abstract

Antibiotics resistance has become a serious global issue particularly in developing countries. Therefore and despite of availability of wide range of antibiotics, still there is need for discovery of new antibiotics.[1] In this line of research the antimicrobial activity of different extracts of Cajanus cajan leaves was investigated. Different extraction methods including (maceration, percolation and hot continuous extraction using soxhelt) and different solvents including petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol were used in this study. Out of the different solvents and extraction methods used, extraction of leaves with methanol /water 80% (v/v) using a hot soxhelt method gave the highest yield % (10%w/w) and the highest antimicrobial and antifungal activity. The antimicrobial activity was confirmed through comparative studies with known antibiotics using standard organisms covering gram+ve and gram-ve species. The specified methanolic extract was subjected to different phytochemical tests including chemical, chromatographic (TLC, HPLC) UV spectroscopy and IR. This study revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, sterol compounds and coumarin as major constituents.

Keywords: Cajanus cajan, phytochemical, methanolic extract, antimicrobial activity.