Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Phytochemical analysis and evaluation of antibacterial activity of some important medicinal plants against pathogenic bacteria
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Research Articles | Published: 25 May, 2026
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Keywords: Phytochemical screening, Petroleum ether extract, Antibacterial, MIC, Antioxidant, GC-MS analysis
Abstract
Numerous bioactive compounds found in medicinal plants can treat a wide range of human ailments and promote healing. Natural products provide an infinite number of opportunities for drug discovery due to their phytochemical diversity. The current study investigates the antibacterial activity of various extracts from four medicinal plants. i.e., Chaerophyllum villosum, Taxus wallichiana, Hieracium murorum, and Origanum vulgare, against six pathogenic microorganisms using the agar well diffusion method and the resazurin dye method. Petroleum ether extract from Chaerophyllum villosum leaves had the highest antibacterial activity against S. flexneri (24.7 ± 0.21 mm), followed by acetone extract of Taxus wallichiana bark (16 ± 0.71 mm) against P. aeruginosa, Hieracium murorum flower methanol extract (14.54 ± 0.32 mm) against P. aeruginosa at 7 mg/70 µl. Chaerophyllum villosum had a MIC of 2.5 mg/100 μl against S. aureus, S. typhi, S. flexneri, E. coli, and B. cereus P. aeruginosa. Qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, carbohydrates, phenolics, and flavonoids. A quantitative analysis revealed that Chaerophyllum villosum had 230 ± 0.25 mg AE/g of total alkaloids, followed by terpenoids (122 ± 0.23 mg LE/g), phenolics (85 ± 0.30 mg GAE/g), and flavonoids (44 ± 0.41 mg QE/g). Chaerophyllum villosum exhibited a maximum DPPH radical scavenging activity of 55.36 ± 0.02%, and the H2O2 scavenging activity was found to be 77.04 ± 0.04%. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of major components, including hexadecane (7.14%), eicosane (7.14%), and phytol acetate (5.81%). The present research findings revealed that crude extracts from various plant sources possess significant antibacterial and antioxidant properties, highlighting relevance in the discovery of novel drug compounds.
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Author Information
Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India