26 Zaffer et al. Int. J. Biosci. 2012 RESEARCH PAPER OPEN ACCESS Antifungal activity and preliminary phytochemical analysis of bark extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam. Mudasser Zaffer 1 , Showkat Ahmad 1 , Rajendra Sharma 1 , Surabhi Mahajan 2 , Ankur Gupta 2 , Rajneesh Agnihotri 1* 1 Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Khandari Campus, Agra, India 2 Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Khandari Campus, Agra, India Received: 04 October 2012 Revised: 18 October 2012 Accepted: 19 October 2012 Key words: antifungal activity, folkloric medicine, phytochemical, susceptibility. Abstract The Chloroform, Ethyl acetate, Methanol and aqueous extracts of Moringa oleifera bark traditionally used in folkloric medicine for the treatment of various infections were investigated for their antifungal activity against 2 fungal strains viz., Rizopus stolonifer and Microsporum gypseum by disc diffusion method. The different extracts of the plant species reduced colony growth of both the fungi to a great degree compared with the control treatment. The test pathogens differed considerably with regard to their susceptibility to plant extracts. Microsporum gypseum was the most susceptible being inhibited by most of the extracts. Methanol was found to be the best extractive solvent for antifungal activity in the test plant. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of Moringa oleifera bark extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavanoids, phenols, tannins, saponins and steroids. The results provide justification for the use of the plant in folk medicine to treat various infectious diseases. * Corresponding Author: Rajneesh Agnihotri  rk_agnihotri@rediffmail.com International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) ISSN: 2220-6655 (Print) 2222-5234 (Online) Vol. 2, No. 12, p. 26-30, 2012 http://www.innspub.net