Abstract
Active ingredients of medicinal plants have been used to cure several human diseases. Azadirachta indica is one of the most versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological activity due to the presence of large number of bioactive compounds. The present study was conducted to evaluate antimicrobial and antioxidant efficiency and phytochemical screening of A. indica leaf extract using methanol as a solvent. A qualitative phytochemical screening was performed for the detection of various phytochemicals. Then, the quantitative determination of total phenols, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins was done and expressed in terms of gallic acid and rutin equivalent. Total phenolic, flavonoid and proanthocyanidin content were found to be 85.9±4.0, 104.9±5.5 and 65.4±13.9 mg/g of plant extract, respectively. Also, the antibacterial activity was performed using six different bacterial strains: Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Salmonella typhi (ATCC 14028), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 700603), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Proteus vulgaris (ATCC 35659). It was found that the maximum zone of inhibition of 22±3 mm was shown against S. aureus using 700 µg plant extract. Similarly, the antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract of plant was also determined and it was found that maximum inhibition obtained was 71.23% when 500 µg plants extract was used. Key words: Azadirachta indica, methanol, antibacterial, antioxidant.
Highlights
Azadirachta indica is one of the most versatile medicinal plant having a wide spectrum of biological activity and commonly known as ‘neem’
It was found that the maximum zone of inhibition of 22±3 mm was shown against S. aureus using 700 μg plant extract
The preliminary phytochemical screening of methanolic extract of A. indica leaves showed the presence of various secondary metabolites
Summary
Azadirachta indica is one of the most versatile medicinal plant having a wide spectrum of biological activity and commonly known as ‘neem’. It is naturalized in most tropical and subtropical countries. It is broad-leaved evergreen that grows up to 30 m tall and belongs to mahogany family, called Meliaceae. Cultivated and naturalized throughout the drier regions of tropical and subtropical countries like Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, it is known for its therapeutic and ethnomedicinal values since prehistoric era (Chopra et al, 1952; Biswas et al, 2002). A. indica has been extensively used in Ayurveda, Unani and homeopathic medicine as each part of either its leaves, bark, stem or root has some medicinal properties.
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