Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF MELIA AZEDARACH LEAVES IN METHANOL SOLVENT

Bharat Pokhrel*, Sulav Raut, Sagar Rijal

ABSTRACT

Natural products continue to play an important role in the discovery and development of new pharmaceuticals. According to WHO, about 80% of the population in the developing countries use traditional medicine in the treatment of various ailments. The present study was conducted to evaluate the physicochemical and preliminary phytochemical studies, antimicrobial and antioxidant efficiency of Melia azedarach L. a medicinal plant (leaf extracts) using methanol as a solvent. Phytochemical screening revealed that methanolic leaf extract, contained, steroids, alkaloids, phenol, flavonoids, polyphenols and glycosides. Antimicrobial efficiency of Melia azedarach L. a medicinal plants (leaf extracts) were tested against six human pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus vulgaris. The diameter of zone of inhibition (ZOI) was measured and it was found that M. azedarach showed maximum zone of inhibition against gram +ve S. aureus and minimum zone of inhibition against gram –ve E. coli. Also the zone of inhibition was increased on increasing concentration. Extracts were also subjected to total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total proanthocyanidins content and antioxidant activity using DPPH assay. 500μg methanolic extract showed the inhibition activity of 65.4%. Results observed in the present study may be indicative of the alcoholic extracts of these plants could be a possible source to obtain new and effective herbal medicines to treat infections, which justify the ethnic uses of M. azedarach against various infectious diseases.

Keywords: Melia azedarach, antimicrobial, antioxidant, phenols