PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF Terminalia arjuna BARK EXTRACTS AGAINST PATHOGENIC MICROBIAL STRAINS- IN VITRO STUDY

Abstract

Terminalia arjuna is potential medicinal plant for the well-being of humans and animals since ancient times. Nowadays, synthetic antibiotics are widely used to fight microbial infectious diseases; the agar well diffusion method was used in this in vitro antibacterial study. A total of six microbial strains were tested for the antibacterial potential of bark extracts in solvents such as aqueous,chloroform and ethanol. Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia, Streptococcus mutans, and Staphylococcus aureus were acquired from a well-known research organization (ATCC). Finally, an aqueous extract of T. arjuna bark was found to have maximum zones of inhibition (8 mm) against P. mirabilis. Also, the chloroform extract of T. arjuna bark was found to have maximum zones of inhibition (8 mm) against K. pneumonia. Whereas, the ethanolic extract of T. arjuna was found to have significant inhibition zones against all the microbial strains. This ethanolic extract was subjected to GC-MS analysis based on the activity of zones of inhibition. In this GC-MS analysis we detected almost fifteen phyto-components and the majority of these phyto-components are alkaloids and flavonoids.