Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Abstract

Phytochemical and antimicrobial study of the flowers of Arenga wightii Griff. - an endemic palm of Southern Western Ghats

Jeeva S, Sukumaran S, Joselin J and Geetha VS

Objective: To make scientific validation of the flowers of the endemic palm Arenga wightii Griff. in relation to phyto chemistry and antimicrobial activity by agar disc diffusion method. Key Findings: Among the three extracts tested against twelve pathogenic bacteria, acetone flower extract was effective against Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes, while chloroform extract was effective against B. cereus, S. aureus, Serratia marcescens and St. pyogenes, while aqueous extract was effective against the gram negative strain Enterobacter sp. and Acinetobacter baumannii. The fungal strains showed no response to the flower extracts. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of phyto constituents viz. steroid, tannin, xantho proteins, phenols, flavonoid, coumarin, saponin and carbohydrates. Conclusion: It may be concluded that the crude extracts obtained from the flowers of A. wightii may be used as drug to treat disease caused by the bacteria. Therefore, further investigations are needed to isolate and characterize their active compounds for pharmacology testing.