PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES OF EVER GREEN MEDICINAL PLANT ANNONA MURICATA - “AN EDIBLE VACCINE”

Nandhini R., Pakutharivu T.*, Rubalakshmi G., Nirubama K. and Prabhakaran S.

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are now getting more attention because they have potential of myriad benefits to the society. These plants may promote host resistance against infection by re-stabilizing body equilibrium and conditioning the body tissues. Chemically, medicinal plants may have secondary metabolites like alkaloids, glycosides, steroids or other groups of compounds which have marked pharmaceutical action as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, antimalarial, antidiabetic, etc. These metabolites are required after because they are known to exhibit number of biological activities that promotes health effects. The screening of plant extracts and their products for antimicrobial activity has shown that higher plants represent a potential source of novel antibiotic prototypes. The selection of crude plant extracts for screening programs is potentially more successful in initial steps than the pure compounds. Once such a plant is Graviola(Annona muricata) which belongs to the family of Annonaceae is an evergreen tree species used as traditional medicines known to possess medicinal uses, but the biological and pharmacological properties are unexplored. There is no systematic work that has been undertaken fruit on this plant and this is the first report of antimicrobial activities ethanolic extract of fruit of Annona muricata. The present study has been formulated to understand the in vitro phytochemical and antimicrobial properties elicited by Annona muricata. The analysis revealed that Annona muricata needs further research on toxicological aspects to develop safe drug.

Keywords: Secondary metabolites, Annona muricata, antimicrobial activity, ethanolic extract, Phytochemical analysis.