Antibacterial potential and phytochemical analysis of two ethnomedicinally important plants

Medicinal plants exhibited great role in drug industries. Herbal medicines and their derivative products are often prepared from crude plant extracts. Echinops echinatus and Tridax procumbens both are belonging to Asteraceae family and these plants are ethnomedicinally important due to their utilization as traditional medicine to cure various diseases. Aim of the current study is to evaluate the antimicrobial properties, preliminary phytochemical and GC-MS analysis of these ethnomedicinally important plants to identify the compounds which are responsible for antimicrobial properties. Their extracts exhibited antimicrobial activity against Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas putida. Both plants contain the active principles like flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, terpenoids and tannins. Result of GC-MS analysis showed the presence of many compounds such as n-Hexadecanoic acid, Hexadecanoic Acid, Methyl ester, Octadecanoic acid, Stigmasterol, Naphthalene, Squalene, 4H-Pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-, Squalene, 4H-Pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-,5 Hydroxymethylfurfural, Lupeol, Dodecanoic acid, Vitamin E (α-Tocopherol), Neophytadiene, Phytol and many other compounds. These compounds are responsible for antimicrobial, anticancer and medicinal properties.