Author(s):

Shailesh

Abstract: Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), pepper (Piper nigrum) and clove (Syzygium aromaticum) are some commonly used spices in households worldwide. Moreover, they have also been utilized as domestic medicine against various infections, a quality attributable to the existence of certain chemical moieties in them. In view of this, the current study was carried out to analyse the phytochemical and antimicrobial nature of these three spices in various extracts. Following a 6 stage extraction process, the extracts collected from these spices were exposed to a number of preliminary biochemical and phytochemical tests. The presence of tannins, saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids and alkaloids were revealed in some of the extracts used in the current investigation. The antimicrobial activity tested against two bacterial species, Staphylococcus aureus and a Bacillus species failed to inhibit the growth of these microbes in culture. However, from the aggregation of all our results, we arrived at a conclusion that the aforementioned spices definitely possess potential therapeutic properties of varying degrees owing to the presence of several phyto-active compounds in them.

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