Abstract

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Caesalpinia coriaria has been screened for their Phytochemicals and antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus spp. and Salmonella spp. The tannins extracted using water, acetone and methanol exhibited antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtillis, Escherichia Coli, Proteus vulgaris, Shigella dysenteriae and Candida albicans. The results showed that methanol extracts have more inhibitory effect than the other extracts. However, in this study the focus is on water extract which is the solvent used traditionally. The highest zone of inhibition of the water extract was found to be 22 mm of Bacillus subtillis compared with a standard Sparfloxacin 10µg/disc which gave 23 mm of Bacillus subtillis. Phytochemicals screening including alkaloids, tannins, saponin, steroid, terpenoids, flavonoid, carbohydrates, and glycosides were present. The proximate analysis of the extracts - moisture content, total soluble, pH, and total solid and total insoluble gave 4.00%, 50.88%, 5.59, 96.00% and 45.12% respectively. . It may be concluded that Caesalpinia coriaria pods contain bioactive compounds of potentially therapeutic and prophylactic significance and thus could be a promissory candidate for drug development.

Keywords: phytochemicals, antimicrobial and Caesalpinia coriaria