Rathnakar Reddi KVN

The plant Acacia leucophloea has been traditionally used for several medicinal purposes. The present study is an attempt to explore antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity and to analyse medically active compounds both qualitatively and quantitatively from leaves of plant Acacia leucophloea by using hexane, acetone, methanol and water as solvents. The extracts were evaluated for their antibacterial and antifungal activities on human pathogens and in-vitro antioxidant activity of Acacia leucophloea was determined by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging and reducing power assay. Ascorbic acid is kept as standard reference and positive control for both the analysis.The total phenol content was determined by the Folin Ciocalteu procedure. Our investigations revealed that only methanol extract showed significant antimicrobial activity against all pathogen, whereas acetone and aqueous extracts showed better inhibitory action and hexane extract showed low antimicrobial activity against tested pathogens. The aqueous extract of Acacia leucophloea showed good antioxidant activity and methanolic extract has comparatively high phenolic content. It can be concluded that the extracts of Acacia leucophloea has good anti-microbial, antioxidant activities and finally we suggest that Acacia leucophloea leaf extracts are rich in bioactive compounds and have good biological activities. However, further detailed investigations are needed to ascertain the mechanisms and constituents behind its biological actions.