Phytochemical Analysis of Traditional Medicinal Plants and their Antimicrobial Activity: An Experience from North East India

Introduction: Phytochemicals are non-nutritive, chemical compounds that occur naturally on plants and have diverse protective properties .Most Phytochemicals like carotenoids, flavonoids and polyphenols have antimicrobial activity and serve as a source of antimicrobial agents against human pathogens. In the present study, five indigenous plants of Assam namely Oldenlandia corymbosa, Ricinus communis, Lpomea aquatica, Xanthium strumarium, Mentha piperita were analyzed for various Phytochemicals present and their antimicrobial activity. Methods: Phytochemical screening tests was conducted for five plant species and found that extract contains a variety of Phytochemicals like saponins, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides and reducing sugars and among which there is higher level of precipitation for phenol and flavonoids. As they are essential source of antimicrobial agents against pathogens, their extract were tested for its antimicrobial activity by well diffusion method using Nutrient agar against human pathogenic bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli. Results: The study plant extract of Xanthium strumarium(leaves, roots) and Mentha piperita(stem) had shown a strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and the plant extract of Ricinus communis(leaves ,stem, roots), Lpomea aquatica (stem)had shown antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli. Oldenlandia corymbosa hadn't shown antimicrobial activity for both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. This study provided evidence to confirm the presence of various medicinally important bioactive compounds or Phytochemicals that has got biological importance and it justifies their use in the traditional medicines for the treatment of different diseases and this findings suggest that the selected plant extracts possesses antimicrobial properties that could be used for biological control of bacterial cultures and this bioactive compounds serve as a source of antimicrobial agents against human pathogens.