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Phytochemicals are secondary metabolites mostly produced by higher plants to enable

them to survive under various biotic and abiotic stresses. Scientific reports exhibited that
these natural compounds have direct and indirect effects on human, animal, fungal and

bacterial physiology. Among them, the ability of some phytochemical compounds to suppress
or eradicate the pathogenic bacteria with various mode of action such as phenolic

compounds, alkaloids, terpenoids, carotenoids and some sulfur-containing phytochemicals.
Such phytochemical molecules are suggested to meet the urgent need for new antibacterial

drugs to overcome the growing phenomenon of the emergence of multi-drug resistant

bacterial pathogens (Sadeek and Abdallah, 2019).
MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Fresh Nutmeg (fruit) of Myristica fragrans Houtt. was collected from different

locations of Surulacode village in Kanyakumari District. The plant were identified
taxonomically.

The fruit parts were washed with clean water. The parts of the fruits like shell, fibril,

seed coat and seed were removed and air dried for 5 days. The dried parts were stored in

sealed and labeled containers for use. The stored shell, fibril, seed coat and seed powder of
Myristica fragrans Houtt. (10 g) was extracted with 60 ml of respective solvents namely

chloroform, ethyl acetate, acetone and ethanol in sterile containers. The extract was kept in
refrigerator for 4 days. Therefore, the suspensions were filtered into sterile containers

separately using whatmann No.1 filter paper. The extracts were allowed to dry at a

temperature of 40⁰C into powder. The powder of the extracts obtained were stored in sealed
bottles and kept in a refrigerator at 4⁰C until further use (Akerele et al., 2008).

Phytochemical analysis:

Preliminary phytochemical tests for the identification of alkaloids, flavonoids,
phenols, saponins, steroids, terpenoids, tannins, glycosides, reducing sugars and proteins

were carried out for all the extracts by the methods described by Khandelwal (2008).

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

The phytochemical analysis in Myristica fragrans Houtt. fruit seed coat is shown in
(Table: 1; Fig: 1). The maximum number of compounds (6) present in acetone extract. The

acetone extract showed the presence of phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids,

saponins, steroids, tannins and glycosides. The minimum phytochemicals were recorded in

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