Phytochemical Investigation and Antibacterial Screening of Leaf Extracts of Sapindus saponaria Vahl.

Sapindus saponaria Vahl is extensively used in India as folklore medicines to cure various human pathogens. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaves with petroleum ether, ethanolic and chloroform extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, steroids, flavonoids, glycosides, terpenes and phenols. In vitro antibacterial studies of these leaf extracts were carried out on four medically important bacterial strains, including Streptococcus faecalis, Streptococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus peritolis which were procured from the Microbial Type Culture and Collection, Chandigarh, India, using agar disc diffusion method. The bacterial strains were exposed to the following four different concentrations of extracts: 50mg/ml, 100mg/ml, 200mg/ml and 300mg/ml solvent. The results of our antibacterial assay revealed that the extract showed good inhibitory activity against all the tested pathogens compared with standard antibiotic like streptomycin. The inhibitory activities were found to be dose dependent.