ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF LEAF EXTRACTS OF CATHARANTUS ROSEUS AGAINST ASPERGILLUS NIGER

Abstract

The therapeutic role of plant materials in multi-disease conditions has necessitated its continued exploration and consumption. This has led us to evaluate the antimicrobial property and phytochemical components of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G Don leaf extracts. Using standard protocols, the phytochemical screening of different extracts namely ethanol, methanol, hot water and cold water (control) extracts of C. roseus leaf was done. The antimicrobial activity of the same plant material was carried out using Agar well diffusion method. This activity was evaluated by measuring the zone of inhibition. The strongest inhibition activity of the leaf extract was observed against Aspergillus niger (1 cm zone) at 20 g of leaf extract. The result showed that methanolic leaf extract had the highest antimicrobial activity against A. niger with zone of inhibition of 1 cm with other extracts showing impressive results also. It then follows that the antimicrobial activity exhibited by these extracts on the test pathogen indicated the inhibitory potentials of the extracts against that organism.