Antibacterial Activity and Screening of Antibacterial Compounds of Costus pictus D.Don Using GC-MS

The medicinal plants are the reservoiur of potential microbial compounds that are useful as an alternative to synthetic microbicides and are used to develope drugs. In the present study an ethanomedicinal plant Costus pictus was analysed for preliminary phytochemical screening, GCMS and antimicrobial activity. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of active compounds such as phenols, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, alkaloid, steroids, glycosides and saponin in the ethanol leaf extract of costus pictus. Different concentration of ethanolic leaf extracts were tested using disc diffusion technique for the activity against Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The ethanolic leaf extract showed concentration dependent activity at various concentrations against all tested bacterias expect E. coli with the zone of inhibition. GC-MS analysis also confirmed the presence of bioactive compounds. The powerful antibacterial effect is attributed due the presence of active compounds present in the ethanolic leaf extract of Costus pictus.