PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF SEMECARPUS ANACARDIUM L. (AN ANTI-CANCER PLANT)

The spread of antibiotic resistant pathogens is one of the most serious menaces to successful treatment of microbial diseases. Medicinal and aromatic plants are widely used as traditional medicines and constitute a major source of natural organic compounds. Semecarpus anacardium Linn (Family: Anacardium), is a plant well known for its medicinal value in Ayurvedic and Siddha system of medicine. The plant was selected on the basis of its reported ethnobotanical uses. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the phytochemicals and antifungal activity of methanolic extract of Semecarpus anacardium L. nuts oils. The preliminary phytochemical studies showed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, glycosides. Different Concentration of methanolic extract (6.25, 12.5, 25, 37.5, 50, 62.5 μg/ml) of S. anacardium were tested against four fungal strains namely Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizctonia solanii, Alternaria spp., and Sclerotium rolfsii. The excellent inhibitory activity was observed against Rhizoctonia solanii (100%) followed by Sclerotium rolfsii (92.59 %), Alternaria spp. (72.34 %) and Fusarium oxysporum (47.19 %) at 62.5 μg/ml. Among different fungi tested R. solanii and Sclerotium rolfsii were found to be more sensitive to crude extract when compared to others. The results of the study provide scientific basis for the use of the plant extract in the future development as antifungal agent.