Investigations of phytochemical and antifungal activity of Carica papaya L. leaves

Abstract

The present work was performed to investigate the phytochem. and antifungal action of Carica papaya L. of family Caricaceae. C. papaya is an important tropical fruit also cultivated in Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The leaves of the resp. plant contain a number of important secondary metabolites. In the present investigation, we studied the phytochem. anal. of carbohydrate, protein, phenolic compounds and many other secondary metabolites. Antifungal effectiveness was determined by using different leaf extracts of C. papaya against Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium sp. and Cladosporium sp. The plants methanolic leaf extracts showed better activity against Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium sp. and Fusarium sp., ethanolic leaf extracts showed pronounced inhibition against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Cladosporium sp. While aqueous leaf extracts did not show inhibitory action against these fungi.