Phytochemical Screening and In vitro Antimicrobial Study of Prosopis cineraria L. Bark

Abstract

Medicinal plants are more readily available and less expensive than synthetic compounds and play an important role in treating infectious diseases. The emergence of multidrug resistance among various groups of microorganisms against various antibiotics prompted researchers to develop effective multidrug-resistant strain-fighting drugs derived from plants. The medicinal plant produces phytochemicals, essential components of the plant's defence system. The present study aims to determine the phytochemical efficacy of metabolites and in vitro antimicrobial activity of Prosopis cineraria methanolic bark extract against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The methanolic crude bark extract was prepared by the Soxhlet method, and antimicrobial activity was investigated by the well diffusion method. The antibiotics Tetracycline and DMSO were used as the positive and negative control, respectively. The percent yield of crude extract was 7.9%. The preliminary phytochemicals screening for secondary metabolites revealed the presence of tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, terpenoids and steroids, while saponins, coumarins and anthraquinones were absent. Antimicrobial efficacy evaluated through Zone of inhibition was compared to standard antibiotic tetracycline and the results revealed high efficacy of bark extract against Staphylococcus aureus followed by Escherichia coli.