Abstract—Psoralea corylifolia Linn. (Leguminoseae) known as “Babchi” is a medicinal plant for the treatment of skin disorders. In the present investigation babchi essential oil has been evaluated for phytochemical constituents, antibacterial activity (agar well diffusion) and TLC bioautography assay. Phytochemical analysis demonstrated the presence of flavonoids, tannins, steroids, terpenoids, glycosides and saponins. Antibacterial activity of babchi oil was assessed on eight multi-drug resistant (MDR) clinical isolates from both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and two standard strains. It showed broad antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, S. aureus MRSA, Enterococcus sp. and Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae. The highest in vitro inhibitory activity was observed for MDR Enterococcus sp. with wide inhibition zone diameters (21±0.16 mm) followed by standard S. aureus ATCC 25923 (16±0.11 mm) and K. pneumoniae (15±0.056 mm). Thin layer chromatography and bioautography assay demonstrated well-defined growth inhibition zones against Enterococcus sp. in correspondence with tannins observed at Rf values of 0.10- 0.15 and 0.70-0.83. This established a good support to the use of this essential oil in herbal medicine and as a base for the development of novel potent drugs and phytomedicine. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that documents the antibacterial efficacy of tannins found in babchi essential oil against MDR bacteria from clinical isolates.

Index Terms—Psolarea corylifolia, Agar well diffusion, MULTI-drug resistant, TLC bioautography, antibacterial activity

The authors are with Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India (e-mail: praveen_sang@yahoo.com).

Cite: Sharmishtha Purkayastha and Praveen Dahiya, "Phytochemical Screening and Antibacterial Potentiality of Essential Oil from Psoralea corylifolia Linn.," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 188-191, 2012.