Phenolic acid analysis and biological activity of methanolic extracts of some medicinal plants against some phytopathogenic fungi

Abstract

About three quarters of the world population rely mainly on plants and plant extracts for health care. The methanolic extracts of some potential medicinal plants such as Saraca indica, Withania somnifera and Bacopa monnieri were assayed against Alternaria cajani, Helminthosporium sp., Bipolaris sp., Curvularia lunata and Fusarium sp. at different concentrations (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 μg/ml). All the three extracts exhibited good inhibitory activity against A. cajani while they were effective at lower concentrations against other fungi also. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the crude extract of the above plants showed five different phenolic acids, viz., benzoic, gallic, ferulic, catechin and tannic acids. Seeing the antifungal efficacy of the above three plant extracts it can be suggested that they can be tried for the control of some plant diseases under field conditions also. The role of phenolic acids in human health has also been discussed.