Phytochemical screening, anti-oxidative activities and anti-microbial studies of an Ayurvedic tonic Triphala along with its components

Abstract

Triphala has been used in the traditional medicine for the treatment of variety of diseases and therefore it becomes immense to study the phytochemical compounds and antibacterial activities. In the present investigation methanolic extract of triphala and its individuals were subjected to evaluate its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Phytochemical studies showed that all the extracts contained alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, tannin, saponins, steroids, terpinoids. The results suggest the phytochemical properties of the samples for curing various ailments. Preliminary antioxidative activity of the samples were also determined and among them we found that triphala contained total poly phenols (246.84mg GAE/g sample) as well as DPPH radical scavenging activity (92.32%) and reducing power (OD=1.35). This shows that the product may be potent source of natural antioxidants. However the product showed considerable level of activity against standard strains and clinical isolates of some gram positive and gram negative bacteria. The obtained results provide a support for the use of these plants in traditional medicine and for its further investigation.