Naga Vamsi Krishna A, Nadeem MD, Pardha Saradhi M, Mahendran B and Bharathi S
Phenolic compounds and aldehydes vary in their chemical structure and properties. p-Coumaric acid is a natural phenolic compound which exists in grapes and some medicinal plants. Syringaldehyde, an aldehyde is also available as a phytochemical. These two are the naturally occurring phytochemicals in plants like Phragmites vallatoria and some other plants belonging to poaceae family. These two compounds have antioxidant, antimicrobial and other medicinal properties. Anti-microbial activity of these two compounds was screened by Disk diffusion method. p- Coumaric acid and Syringaldehyde were tested for antimicrobial activity against bacterial pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Bacillus subtilis. Low concentration of p-Coumaric acid or Syringaldehyde alone did not exert any zone of inhibition on above mentioned microbial strains, but these two compounds in cumulation showed zone of inhibition on various microbial strains. Cumulative action of these two compounds at 50 & 100 μg were exerting little inhibition activity on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis and at 200 μg was very effective against all the microbial strains except for Escherichia coli. Tetracycline showed positive results against all the microbial strains under study. The present study reveals that p-Coumaric acid & Syringaldehyde in cumulation only showed antimicrobial effect.
