Study of Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Activity of <i>Citrus aurantifolia</i> Seed Extracts

Abstract

Citrus aurantifolia , the family Rutaceae, which consists of 150 genera and 900 species, is gaining grounds as important source for treatment in complementary medicine, and commonly called limone. Chloroform, methanol and ethanol extract exhibited significant antimicrobial activity and highlighted the biological monitoring of activity from the methanol extract of seeds. Phytochemical screening of the diethyl ether, methanol and aqueous extracts of seeds confirmed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, sterols and triterpenes, carotenoids, coumarins, tannins and carbohydrates. Chloroform extract was fractionated by sing liquid solid column chromatographic technique and column fractions eluted with chloroform and methanol. The antibacterial secondary metabolites were achieved by fractionation of the active. The seed extracts were monitored analytically by TLC preparative and some chemical analyses of seeds have been done such as determination of ash, nitrogen, protein content.