ABSTRACTObjective: Bauhinia phoenicea, an endemic plant of western Ghats, using in traditional medicine against diabetes, skin allergies, fungal infections, andworm disturbances. To the best of our knowledge, any scientific studies on the medicinal properties of the leaves of this plant are not yet reported.Therefore, as the first step toward unraveling its medicinal property, bioactivity profiling, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)analysis were performed.Methods: The pharmacological activity profiling includes antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic, and antioxidant property screening using crudeethanolic extract, which preliminary analyses its folk claim. GC-MS analysis performed to identify the pharmacologically active principles. All analyseswere performed according to standard protocols.Results: Ethanol extract of the leaves of B. phoenicea was assayed for the antimicrobial activity against 10 human pathogenic strains using welldiffusion assay. The extract showed a significant activity against all pathogens. A maximum zone of inhibition observed in Salmonella typhi in theirhigher concentration (500 µg/ml). The anthelmintic activity of crude drug evaluated on Indian adult earthworms Pheretima posthuma, exhibited dosedependentspontaneous mortality,and evokedresponsestopin prickand effectscomparedwith that of albendazole. The drug showedpotentantioxidantpropertyin 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazylfreeradicalscavengingand superoxideanion scavengingassayswith half maximal inhibitoryconcentrationvalues92±0.92 and 62±1.34, respectively.The GC-MSanalysiswhichshowedthe presenceof 19 compounds including hexadecanoicacid and oleic acid.Conclusion: According to our results, it is concluded that leaf of B. phoenicea has significant antimicrobial, anthelmintic, and antioxidant propertiessupporting the folk medicinal use of this species. The further procedures of isolation and characterization of active principles are in progress.Keywords: Bauhinia phoenicea, Antimicrobial, Anthelmintic, Antioxidant property and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
