Since ancient times, mankind all over the world mainly depended upon the plant kingdom to meet their all needs of medicines, for alleviating ailments. The present work carried out as an ethnobotanical approach based on the historical medicinal values of shikakai containing saponin glycosides. The results of preliminary phytochemical tests on aqueous extract of seed kernels showed that the presence of saponins, steroids, flavonoids, tannins, proteins and carbohydrates. The antibacterial activity of aqueous extract of seed kernels of the Acacia concinna by cup plate method has maximum activity against gram positive organism, Bacillus subtilis followed by the gram negative organism Proteus vulgaris. The staphylococcus aureus and E. coli organisms showed nearly equal inhibition. The extract has least activity on Micrococcus luteus. The inhibitory actions on both gram positive and negative organisms due to presence of multiple active plant constituents present in the extract along with inert constituents. The aqueous extract of seed kernels showed paralysis and death of earth worms more than the standard drug piperazine citrate at the tested lowest concentration of 10 mg/ml, it might be due to presence of remarkable proved anthelmintics, saponins, tannins and flavonoids present in the extract.
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