Evaluation of medicinal constituents and properties of Linum usitatissimum, Prosopis juliflora and Guizotia abyssinica

Abstract

Linum usitatissimum, Prosopis juliflora and Guizotia abyssinica are remarkably important medicinal plants used for therapeutic purpose. The present study deals with phytochemical analysis of selected plants and also carried out to investigate antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activity. The ethanolic extracts of seeds of the plants were tested for the presence of various phytochemical constituents such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, flavanoids, phlobatannins, cardiac glycosides and steroids. The antibacterial activity was tested against human pathogenic micro-organisms like Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633), Streptococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Streptococcus abony (ATCC 6017), Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) by the agar well diffusion method. The ethanolic extracts of seeds of selected plants were tested against pathogenic fungi like Alternaria solani, Aspergillus niger, Lasiodiploidia theobromeae, Rhizopus spp. and Candida albicans by pour plate method. The cytotoxic effect of selected plants were tested against HEK293T (Human embryonic kidney cell line) and c2c12 (Mouse, Muscle cell line) by MTT assay. Results showed that selected plants contain important phytochemicals which can be used to investigate its potential use for developing new drugs.