Antimicrobial activity and phytochemical analysis of selected medicinal plants species

Accepted 16th July 2019
 

Shabana Irum¹*, Farhat ali khan¹, Faisal Nouroz^2,7, Nazia Tahir³*, Aman Ullah³, Adnan Tahir⁴, Talmiz Ur Rahman⁵ and Shazia Erum<sup>6

1</sup>Department of Botany, Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan.
² Department of Botany, Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan and
³Department of Agriculture, Abdul Wali khan University, Mardan, Pakistan.
⁴Department Agriculture, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
⁵Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing-China.
⁶Plant Genetic Resource Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁷Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Leicester, UK.

 

Pathogenic disorders are increasing day by day. To escape these diseases, it is compulsory to explore bioactive compounds present in medicinal plants which are effective against these pathogenic diseases. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the phytochemical compounds and antimicrobial activity of the extracts of selected medicinal plants. Bioactive compounds such as Saponin, Tannins, Quinones, Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Phenols, Coumarin, Terpenoids, Glycosides and Cardiac glycosides were screened from selected seven medicinal plants with variation between individual plants. The bioactive compounds were obtained from the leaves of selected medicinal plants species (Cymbopogon citrates Stapf (DC.), Thymus vulgaris L., Lavandula angustifolia Miler., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Carica papaya L., Ocimum americanum L. and Ocimum basilicum L) to screen the antimicrobial activity of selected pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Xanthomonas oryzae and Staphylococcus aureus using disc diffusion method. The Ethanolic extract of C. citratus presented the highest anti-X. oryzae activity among all the tested plants and was effective against all bacterial strains tested. Thereafter, all the remaining plants extracts of T. vulgaris, L. angustifolia, O. basilicum, O. americanum, R. officinalis and C. papaya showed also a valuable activity against X. oryzae, S. aureus and E. coli. We conclude from this that all these extracts exhibit amazing antimicrobial properties that support their traditional use as antiseptics.

Key words: Medicinal plants, bacterial strains, antimicrobial activity, phytochemical analysis, ethanolic extracts, bioactive compounds.