Abstract

T. S. Arun*, Rakesh Kumar Jat and J. Jaslin Edward

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed with the object of preliminary phytochemical evaluation and the study of antimicrobial activity of the extracts of the aerial parts of Kedrostis rostrata plant. In this study, the whole plant Kedrostis rostrata was collected authenticated, the aerial parts was separated and dried for powdering. The dried plant material was powdered in mechanical grinder and the coarse powder thus obtained was extracted in soxhlet apparatus with the solvents of increasing polarity viz., petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol. The dried extracts thus obtained were subjected to preliminary phytochemical evaluation and antimicrobial activity studies viz., antibacterial and antifungal evaluation. The results of preliminary phytochemical evaluation revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, phenolic compounds, flavanones and flavonoids, carbohydrates, terpenoids, sterols and saponins. A significant presence of majority of phytochemicals were found in the methanol and ethyl acetate extracts comparing with other two, the petroleum ether, chloroform extracts. In the evaluation of antimicrobial activity, the methanol extract showed a significant antibacterial and antifungal activity against tested pathogens particularly E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and Candida sp.,. Outcome of this study is beneficial and further investigation in the future may give more significant results.