In vitro studies on phytochemical evaluation and antimicrobial activity of Borassus flabellifer Linn against some human pathogens.

Objective: To detect preliminary phytochemicals and antimicrobial activity of seed coat of Borassus flabellifer (B. flabellifer) against some human pathogens.
Methods: The antimicrobial activity of the organic solvent extracts of seed coat of B. flabellifer against various test microorganisms including bacteria and fungi was investigated using agar well diffusion technique.
Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening of the aqueous, methanoic and ethanolic extracts of seed coat of B. flabellifer revealed the presence of certain phytochemicals like tannins, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides and terpenoids. The zone of inhibition of methanolic extracts varied from 16 to 23 mm where as with ethanol extracts from 14 to 23 mm and aqueous extracts from 10 to 15 mm at 50 mg/mL concentrations. Among all tested organisms, Aspergillus brasiliensis and Bacillus subtilis showed a higher rate of inhibition with ethanolic and methanolic extracts of B. flabellifer.
Conclusions: B. flabellifer exhibited higher rate of growth inhibition against some human pathogens, so it can be used for treatment of some infectious diseases. Further studies are being carried out to separate and purify the individual compounds that are present in seed coat of B. flabellifer by using various chromatographic techniques.
(Copyright © 2014 Hainan Medical College. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)