Preliminary screening of phytochemicals and antimicrobial activity of Citrus pseudolimon

Abstract

Plants contain a wide range of phytochemical constituents and therefore, are used in the pharmaceutical industry either indirectly or directly. Citrus pseudolimon is an important medicinal plant of the family Rutaceae and, had not been previously explored for any beneficial effect. The main objective of the study was to perform the phytochemical quantitative analysis and demonstrate the antimicrobial activity of Citrus pseudolimon peel and juice. The results thus, obtained with respect to the quantitative phytochemical analysis was recorded with higher total carbohydrates, proteins, phenolics, flavonoids, and tannin contents in the peel of Citrus pseudolimon when compared to its juice content. The quantitative phytochemical screening demonstrates that flavonoid content was higher in peel (5.47 mg/100 mg) than in juice (2.67 mg/100 ml), followed by the phenolic content which was little higher in peel (5.58 mg/100 mg) compared to that reported (0.34 mg/100 ml) in juice content respectively. Similarly, the tannin content was found to be higher in peel (35.70 mg/100 mg) than in juice (14.15 mg/100 ml). Furthermore, the tannin content in Citrus pseudolimon was found higher than phenolic and flavonoid content. However, in antimicrobial analysis, juice revealed stronger activity against gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli zone (24 mm) than gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (18 mm) while no activity was shown by peel against both these bacterial strains. It can be concluded that the peels revealed high phytochemical content, while juice fraction was recorded with strong antibacterial activity.