Phytochemical screeing and detection of antimicrobial activity of Mollugo oppositifolia, a herb

Abstract

Abstract:
Mollugo oppositifolia,a not much known medicinal herb was taken for study. The aim of the study was to screen the secondary metabolites in the plant and determine their anti microbial activity.Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the powdered leaves, flowers and stem were taken and subjected to phytochemical screening. Alkaloids, saponins and terepenoids were present in excess; tannins, glycosides, steroids and flavanoids were also present. Antimicrobial activity using pour plate method with E.coli and Salmonella species were tested , ethanolic extracts alone seemed to show activity. Hence, to detect which metabolite majorly contributed to the antimicrobial activity; the majorly present metabolites such as alkaloids was extracted by Harborne method using ammonium hydoxide, saponins by Obadoni & Ochuko method using diethyl ether & n-butanol and terpenoids by steam distillation using water. The stem, leaf and flower samples of each were extracted respectively. The extracted samples were then tested for antimicrobial activity using pour plate with E.coli strain and ethanol as control, 100micro litre of the sample was loaded and the activity was observed after a day of incubation. The activity was significant only in stem, leaf n flower samples of saponins. Thus the study shows that the antimicrobial activity is majorly due to the presence of saponins. Further, the leaves seem to have almost all the essential secondary metabolites and hence study on their role in medicinal properties and their cytotoxic activity ll help in designing more useful drugs. Also the plant is expected to have a lot of medicinal properties and anticancerous agents, studies over it is beeing carried out.