PHARMACOGONOSTICAL, PHYTOCHEMICAL, AND ANTI MICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF LEAVES OF FICUS MOLLIS VAHL

Abstract

Ficus mollis vahl. is an deciduous tree under the family Moraceae. This study was carried out with an objective to investigate pharmacogonostical, phytochemical analysis of leaf extracts of a medicinal plant, F. mollis and their antimicrobial activities against pure microbial cultures of Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger. Leaves crude drug for microscopic, organoleptic and behavior of the leaf powder upon treatment with different chemical reagents was observed and reported. The preliminary phytochemical investigation for the leaves extracts proved the presence of pharmacologically active compounds such as alkaloids, phenols, flavonoides, glycosides, tannins, lignins, saponins and steroids.  The maximum antimicrobial activity was observed in methanol and aqueous extracts against A. niger and P. aeruginosa with zone of inhibition 25.75 and 25.00 mm. It is also reported that there is no activity in benzene extract on all organisms. Minimum inhibitory concentrations on all organisms with leaf extracts ranges from 0.32 to 3.62 mg/ml compared to 10 mg/ml of Nystatin. Antimicrobial activity of leaves extracts proved the plant contains antimicrobial compound which can be further developed as phytomedicine for the therapy of infection. All these findings serve as preliminary data for further studies on F. mollis.