Abstract

EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS

Shyamji Shukla*, Sakshi Jaiswal, Richa Pandey, Sangeeta Jhamb

ABSTRACT

Plants have long been the focus of the medical sector due to their numerous biological and medicinal properties.Natural alternatives must be investigated because antibiotic resistance has grown to be a global concern. The antibacterial potential and phytochemical components of Catharanthus roseus in four solvent extracts chloroform (C), ethyl acetate (EA), methanol (M), and aqueous prepared from the leaf material of this medicinal plant, which is rich in bioactive alkaloids, are examined in this work.Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and terpenoids were detected by phytochemical screening; methanol and ethyl acetate extracts showed the greatest phytochemical variety across all seven constituent classes. The extract with the highest alkaloid concentration was chloroform . Using the agar well diffusion method and streptomycin (40 μg/ml) as the positive control, antibacterial activity was assessed against four clinically significant bacterial strains: Klebsiella pneumoniae (MTCC#8911), Bacillus subtilis (MTCC#736), Escherichia coli (MTCC#45), and Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC#10787). The results showed that the chloroform extract had the strongest antibacterial activity, resulting in the biggest zones of inhibition against B. subtilis (25 mm) and E. coli (26 mm). Methanol and aqueous extracts showed selective and somewhat modest inhibition, but ethyl acetate extract consistently showed broad-spectrum action across all four test species. B. subtilis and E. coli were not affected by the aqueous extract. These results imply that Catharanthus roseus contains bioactive substances with noteworthy antibacterial qualities, especially in non-polar to semi-polar solvent fractions.

Keywords: Antimicrobial activity, Catharanthus roseus,zone of inhibition, solvent extracts, alkaloids, agar well diffusion, bioactive compounds.