Phytochemical Screening and Antifungal Activity of Certain Plant Species of Agra Region

Abstract

Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of both traditional and modern medicines, herbal medicine has been shown to have genuine utility and about 80% of rural population depends on it as primary health care. In the recent past, there has been growing interest in exploiting the biological activities of different ayurvedic medicinal herbs, owing to their natural origin, cost effectiveness and lesser side effects. In the present study the different plant species of known pharmaceutical value viz: Acalypha indica, Amaranthus spinosus, Butea monosperma, Eclipta alba, Pongamia glabra, and Zizyphus jujuba were taken for studying the presence of active principles like Alkaloids, Tannins, Saponins, Glycosides, Phenols, Flavonoids, Anthraquinones, Terpenoids and Steroids etc for their application in modern system of medicines. Results obtained revealed that the maximum number of phytocompounds were found to be present in the Chloroform solvent extract of Acalypha indica, Amarathus spinosus and Zizyphus jujuba; n- hexane extract of Butea monosperma and Eclipta alba. However the least number of phytocompounds were found to be present in the aqueous extract of Acalypha indica and Amarathus spinosus. On the other hand Zizyphus jujuba showed the maximum 76.74% inhibition in the mycelial weight of Microsporom gypseum and minimum 55.81% due to Acalypha indica at 2:5 concentration ratio, whereas maximum 58.13% and minimum 34.88% due to Pongamia glabra and Eclipta alba at 1:5 ratio has further being observed. It can be concluded the plant species tested are found to be more antifungal at their highest concentrations, however the lower concentrations also shows promising results.