PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF VARIOUS FRUIT PODS AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGENS

Traditional plant-based remedies continue to be an important therapeutic aid for treating many infections. In the current study, an attempt was made to know the antibacterial activity of different pod extracts of plants like Albizzia lebbeck, Cesalpina pulcherima, Leucenea leucocephala, & Tecoma stans against six different human pathogens E. coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris. The pods were collected, washed, shade dried and powdered. The powders of the four different pods were extracted with methanol and water and screened for their phytochemical constituents by standard protocols and were shown to contain carbohydrates, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, saponins. All the extracts obtained were tested against the six pathogenic bacteria by cup plate method. Out of all the extracts, methanolic extracts of all the pods showed promising activity against all six pathogens. Methanolic extracts of C. pulcherima (2.2 cm) & T. stans (2.13 cm) exhibited greater activity than standard (2.0 cm) when tested against E. coli. The antibacterial activity of extracts may be linked to the presence of flavonoids, saponins, and tannins.