Phytochemical Screening and Evaluation of Antimicrobial Potential of Dendrobium fimbriatum Hook

Research on medicinal plants is important to Indian subcontinent because most of its rural population relies on it as a mode of medicine. Orchids have tremendous potential in horticulture and pharmacognosy; five Dendrobium species are included in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. They are assumed to be effective in some diseases or syndromes related to the deficiency of yin in the kidney, lung and stomach. They are also used as remedies for fever, red tongue, atrophic gastritis and diabetes, but this potential has remained largely untapped in India. Many orchids were used in Chinese traditional medicine as a remedy for a number of treatments. Medicinal plants, such as the orchid Dendrobium fimbriatum, were collected from the Manipur University campus. The present study was undertaken to find the antimicrobial activity and phytochemical profile in different extraction media. The percentage yield from the orchid was highest in warm ethanol extraction with 12.6%, followed by ethyl acetate and lowest in cold ethanol. Plant extract showed the presence of antioxidants like alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins and glycosides. The antibacterial activity of the ethanol extract of D. fimbriatum showed significant bioactivity by inhibiting the growth of microbial species selected for the test. The zone of inhibition shown by the extracts was comparable to the standard antibiotics. Therefore, the present study indicated that D. fimbriatum possesses good antibacterial activities. Further work is needed to explore the active principle from the plant extracts for further pharmaceutical studies.