Objective: Bauhinia phoenicea Wight & Arn is a medicinal plant endemic to Western Ghats. In traditional medicine, it used against diabetes, skin allergies, fungal infections and worm disturbances. To the best of our knowledge, any scientific studies on the medicinal properties of this are not yet reported. Therefore, as a first step towards unraveling its medicinal property, bioactivity profiling was performed.Methods: Pharmacological activity profiling includes antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic and antioxidant property screening using crude ethanolic extract, which preliminary analyses its folk claim. Qualitative Phytochemical analysis performed to identify various valuable secondary metabolites. All the analysis were done according to standard protocolsResults: The present work focused on the evaluation of its folk claim. Ethanolic extract of bark of B. phoenicia assayed for antimicrobial activity against 10 human pathogenic strains. The extract showed significant activity against all pathogens. Maximum zone of inhibition observed in Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger in their higher concentration (500µg/ml). The anthelmintic activity of crude drug evaluated on Indian adult earthworms Pheretima posthuma, exhibited dose dependent spontaneous mortality, and evoked responses to pin prick and effects compared with that of Albendazole. The ethanolic extract showed potent DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging and super oxide anion scavenging properties with IC 50 values 90±0.92 and 64±0.5 respectively. The preliminary qualitative analysis of B. phoenicea bark indicated the presence of alkaloids, saponins, phenols, steroids and flavonoids.Conclusion: According to our results, it is concluded that bark of B. phoenicea has significant antimicrobial, anthelmintic and antioxidant properties supporting the folk medicinal use of this species. The further procedures of identification and isolation of the pharamacologically active principles are in progress.Â
