Abstract

A STUDY ON THE BIOEFFICACY OF CARYOTA URENS L.

D. Vanaja and *Dr. S. Kavitha

Abstract

The present study is aimed to investigate the popular palm Caryota urens leaves for its phytochemical composition, anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and FT-IR evaluation. Three different solvents aqueous, methanol and hexane were used in this study. The qualitative tests for phytochemicals confirmed the presence of terpenoids, alkaloids, steroids, saponins, glycosides, phytosterols, resins, phenols, flavonoids and oxalic acid. The quantitative analysis of methanolic leaf extract of C. urens revealed the presence of phenols (29.6 mg GAE/g), terpenoids (70mg/g) and oxalic acid (0.0612mg/g). In vitro anti-oxidant activities were evaluated by DPPH, hydrogen peroxide and reducing power methods. The antimicrobial activity of different concentrations (25, 50, 75, 100 μg/g) of methanol leaf extract were tested against two gram positive and two gram negative bacterial strains (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa﴿ and 4 fungal strains (Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp. and Fusarium sp﴿. The larvicidal activity of methanol leaf extracts against Aedes aegypti was studied by direct contact method. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity of methanol leaf extract was studied by inhibition of protein denaturation method. The FTIR spectroscopic studies showed the characteristic peak values for various functional compounds in the methanol extract. The present study suggests that, C. urens has therapeutic potential that can be used as a resource of different bioactive compounds and antioxidants.

Keywords: Phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, anti-microbials, larvicidal, anti-inflammatory and FT-IR.