Abstract:
he celosia argentea leaves are used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of fever,
diarrohea, mouth sores, itching, wounds, jaundice, gonorrhea, inflammation, bleeding nose, cold
and gastrointestinal diseases. In this study 500g of air dried grinded leaves of the plant were
sequentially extracted with petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol using the maceration
method. Then the three extracts were separately subjected to phytochemical screening test using
known methods and the petroleum ether extract showed the presence of steroids, Quinone,
starch, cellulose, fixed oils and fats. The chloroform extract indicated the presence of alkaloids,
tannin, steroids, terpenoids, Quinone, starch saponin, fixed oils and fats. Finally, the methanol
extract exhibited the presence of alkaloids, Quinone, flavonoids, tannin, phenols, steroids,
terpenoids, protein, starch, fixed oils and fats. The three extracts were also separately presented
to antibacterial activities by gram-well diffusion method against E.coli, S.aureus, and
K.pneumonia and S.typhi bacteria. The petroleum ether and chloroform extracts did not show
inhibition zones. On the other hand, the methanol extract showed comparable inhibition zone
against the selected bacteria. Since the methanol extract showed comparable inhibition zone
against the selected pathogens it was further subjected to column chromatography for the
isolation of the major component. The major component isolated from the methanol extract was
identified as 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23-hexamethyltetracosa-12, 22-dien-1-ol by spectroscopic
techniques
