236 South Indian Journal Of Biological Sciences 2016; 2(2); 236‐244 ONLINE ISSN: 2454‐4787 Research Article In‐vitro antimicrobial activities of Pongamia glabra and Phyllanthus niruri N. Mahalakshmi 1, 2 , S. Dhanasekaran 1 , C. Ravi 2 , S. Lingathurai 3,* 1 Department of Zoology, Yadava College, Madurai, India 2 Post Graduate Research Department of Zoology, Thiyagarajar College, Madurai, India 3 Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Pachaiyappa’s College for Men Kanchipuram, India * Corresponding author: S. Lingathurai; E‐mail: lings02@gmail.com Received 26 August 2015; Revised 30 September 2015; Accepted 29 December 2015; Published 2 April 2016 Abstract The antibacterial and antifungal activities of chloroform, ethanol, acetone and aqueous extracts of Pongamia glabra and Phyllanthus niruri leaves were screened. In antibacterial activity assay followed by standard disc diffusion method against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus and Enterobacter aerogens. Among the all the treatments, chloroform extract of P. glabra showed the highest activity against bacterial and fungal strains. Chloroform extract of P. glabra showed the presence of phalobatannin, saponin, flavanoids, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, alkaloids, steroids and aminoacids. P. niruri leaf extract showed the presence of tannin, phlobatannin, flavanoids, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, steroids and aminoacids. Keywords: Pongamia glabra, Phyllanthus niruri, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Phytochemicals 1. Introduction Plants are invaluable sources of new drugs and there is an ever ‐ growing interest in investigating different species of plants to identify their potential therapeutic applications (Rego 1995). Traditional medicine is still followed as an alternate for chemical drugs which cause residue problem and associated side effects (Cunha 2001). The antimicrobial compounds of medicinal plants often have fewer side effects, better patient tolerance, relatively less expensive and are being renewable in nature (Vermani and Garg 2002). Plants have a great potential for producing new drugs for human benefit, are used in traditional medicine to treat chronic and even infectious diseases (Chowdhury et al., 2009). According to a report of World Health Organization (WHO), more than 80% of world’s population depends on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs (Duraipandian et al., 2006; Antonisamy et al., 2015; Balamurugan 2015; Barathi and Agastian 2015; Nandhini and Bai 2015; Rathi et al., 2015; Narendran et al., 2016; Puthur 2016; Noorudheen and Chandrasekharan 2016; Santhosh et al., 2016; Greeshma 2016; Sreeshma et al., 2016; Nair et al., 2016). The plant extracts and essential oils constitute a natural source of antimicrobial compounds and have a great usage in folk medicine (Demirie et al., 2008).