ABSTRACT:
Plants have been the source of food, fiber and fuel for man and plant kingdom also provides a wide variety of natural products with diverse chemical structure and a vast array of biological activities. India has one of the richest traditions of medicinal plants in the world. Many traditional healing herbs and their parts have medicinal value and can be used to prevent, alleviate or cure several human diseases. Besides, higher plants are major sources of natural products which are used in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavor and fragrance ingredients, food additives and pesticides. Balanites aegyptiaca an endangered medicinal plant a member of family Balanitaceae is a genus of small, thorny trees, distributed from Africa to Burma. It is also found in throughout drier parts of India. Fruit pulp extracts of B. aegyptiaca were analyzed for preliminary phyto-chemical investigation and in- vitro antibacterial potential against various Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria by agar well diffusion method. The butanolic extract 100ug showed maximum zone of inhibition than other extracts against four bacteria. This antibacterial activity could be correlated to the presence of secondary metabolites such as saponins, lavonoids, alkaloids, phenolics and terpenes. In the present communication, we report the antibacterial activity and suggest that the fruit pulp extract could be used as an alternative in the fight against S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and B.subtilis.
Cite this article:
Bhalerao (2016). Preliminary Phyto-Chemical Investigation of Fruit Pulp Crude Extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca Del and its Potential against Gram Positive and Gram Negative Infectious Agents. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-B: Science), 29(1), pp.199-200.