ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF PLANT EXTRACTS OF ANETHUM SOWA

Anethum sowa are widely used traditional medicinal plant to treat various ailments. To provide a scientific basis for traditional uses of Anethum sowa,their ethanolic, aqueous,n-Butanol and petroleum ether extracts of various plant parts were tested against human pathogenic microorganisms (Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Escherichia coli, Cogulase positive staphylococci, Cogulase negative staphylococci , Enterococcus species, Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis).The antimicrobial potential of Anethum sowa against human pathogenic microorganisms was investigated. Their isolated phytoconstituents were evaluated for their antimicrobial potential. Antimicrobial activity of various plants extracts was compared with commercially available antibiotics. The antimicrobial potential of the above plant extracts was seen against the test organism using agar gel diffusion susceptibility test by standard technique of Opara and Anasa(1993) . The resulting zones of inhibition were measured. The MIC (Minimum inhibitory concentration), MBC (Minimum Bactericidal Concentration) and MFC (Minimum Fungicidal Concentration) of the plant extracts was determined according to the Micro broth dilution technique (Murray et.al.1999). Phytochemical estimation was carried out according to the methods described by Trease and Evans (1989) .Ethanolic and n-Butanol extracts showed considerably good antibacterial activity against all bacteria and fungi. Among all solvents used ethanol extract gave the highest zone of inhibition. With Escherichia coli zone of inhibition was 23.8mm, with Cogulase (+) Staphylococci it was 24.5 mm., with Cogulase (-) Staphylococci 23.0 mm., with Pseudomonas aeruginosa 19.6 mm.,with Enterococcus sp. 15.3 mm., with Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis it was 26.5 mm and 25.2 mm respectively. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, steroids, triterpenoids, terpenoids, phenol and glycosides.