A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON THE BARK ANATOMY, PHYTOCONSTITUENT AND DETERMINATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL EFFICACY OF ARAUCARIA COOKII

Abstract

Araucaria cookii, a peculiar ornamental exotic conifer found in India and prevalent in varied European countries and the United States. These have exhibited diverse therapeutic properties, but still evidently unclear. Bark anatomy has been contributed significantly in the analytical observation of its potential and found very scanty in published literatures. In present study, westudiedthe anatomical observation of the bark of A. cookii, and identify the anti-microbial activities of methanol bark extract of A.cookii. The bark of A. cookii was collected from the A. cookii from Nilgiri Hills of Ooty Tamil Nadu. The anatomical structures of the bark were elucidated, based on the pattern of the bark, macroscopically and microscopically by using the techniques such as tangential longitudinal section (TLS) and radial longitudinal section (RLS). The phytochemical examination of the methanol bark extract was done to confirm the presence of phytochemical components. The antimicrobial activity of the bark extract was also studied based on the zone of inhibition.The phytochemical constituents detected were presumed to be responsible factors for its medicinal features. Thus, our results showed that the bark of A.cookiicould act as a possible antimicrobial natural source against probable infectious pathogens.