PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTI-BACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF ERYTHRINA VARIEGATA LEAF, STEM AND ROOT EXTRACTS

Erythrina variegata is a potent medicinal plant belonging to the family Fabaceae. Present investigation was carried out the preliminary phytochemical screening of the Erythrina variegata to evaluate the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, tannins, steroids/triterpenoids, quinones, saponins by using different parts of the plant extracts such as leaf, stem and root in five different solvent systems (methanol, butanol, chloroform, ethanol, and distilled water) by cold maceration technique. According to our evaluation the high intensity of secondary metabolites like alkaloids and glycosides were strongly observed in leaf butanol extract and complete absence of saponins except in aqueous solvent was seen. In stem extracts butanol and chloroform were more efficient solvents for alkaloids, glycosides, tannins and moderate for phenols and steroids. The results of root extract revealed the strong presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides inbutanol extract. Due to its efficiency in butanolic extract Erythrina variegata was used to test anti-bacterial activity. Which showed the highest zone of inhibition against Bacillus subtilis in leaf and root extract whereas in stem butanolic extract highest zone of inhibition was against Proteus vulgaris.