A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IN VITRO ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND TLC STUDIES OF PETALS OF SELECTED INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS

Objective: The present study was to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity, and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) studies from the petals of fourdifferent Indian medicinal plants (Punica granatum, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Cassia auriculata, and Moringa oleifera).Methods: The phytochemical screening of the methanol extract of petals of four different Indian medicinal plants was performed using standardprocedures. The antimicrobial activity was tested against various test organisms using the agar disc diffusion method.Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening for petals of four different medicinal plants revealed the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins,and saponins. From the above study, the results indicated that the methanol extract of M. oleifera petals showed the highest antimicrobial activityagainst Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis with zone of inhibition 17.93 and 23.40, respectively, at the concentration of 20 μl/ml and alsoshowed the maximum inhibitory activity at the highest concentration (20 μl/ml) than the lowest concentration (5 μl/ml) against Gram-negativebacteria such as Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Gram-positive B. subtilis and S. aureus. TLC studies of methanolextracts of petals of Indian medicinal plants revealed the presence of different phytoconstituents as evidenced by separated compounds with differentRf values.Conclusion: The results obtained in the present study indicate that the petals of four different Indian medicinal plants showed the highest antibacterialactivity and can be used as an antibacterial agent against bacterial diseases.Keywords: Phytochemicals, Antibacterial activity, Thin-layer chromatography