STUDY OF PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL OF METHANOL AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF AERIAL PARTS OF ELEPHANTOPUS SCABER LINN.

Abstract

The present study was carried out to evaluate the phytochemical, antibacterial and antifungal activity of methanol and aqueous extract of Elephantopus scaber Linn. leaf on selected five bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Leuconostoc lactis and Salmonella typhi and four fungal strains Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus indicus and Mucor indicus. For antimicrobial test, well diffusion technique was used and the zone of inhibition of microorganisms was measured in mm. The leaf extract of E. scaber showed not much potential antimicrobial activities against the selected strains and the maximum inhibition zone 28 mm was recorded from 200mg of methanol extract of E. scaber against Streptococcus pyogenes and minimum (18mm) by the above pathogen at 50 mg of methanol extract. The methanolic extract showed the maximum antifungal activity 32mm inhibition zone was recorded from 200mg of extract against Mucor indicus and minimum 14mm by 50 mg of extract against Rhizopus indicus. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Saponins, Tannins, Phenols, Proteins and Carbohydrates in varying concentration.