Phytochemical Screening and Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity of Andrographis Nallamalayana Ellis, a rare and Endangered species

The present article is designed for screening and evaluation of biomolecules, antimicrobial potential from extracts of A. nallamalayana (root), belongs to the family Acanthaceae. A. nallamalayana is the rare and endemic to the forests of Nallamalais, the nucleus of Eastern Ghats, India. It has been used in the folklore system of medicine for the treatment of mouth ulcers, leucorrhoea and abortion / sterility. Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of the test species is hither to not reported. The phytochemical investigation on all such extracts revealed the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, steroids and triterpenoids. The antimicrobial activity of various extracts (petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol) of A. nallamalayana revealed that the methanolic extract (root) exhibited maximum inhibition on all test pathogens followed by ethyl acetate while petroleum ether failed to show inhibition. Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus were proved as most sensitive while Bacillus subtilis as resistant strain to the test extracts.