PHYTOCHEMICAL PROFILING, ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL, AND GC-MS ANALYSIS OF EPIPHYTIC ORCHID VANDA TESSELLATA (ROXB)

The present study investigates the phytochemical composition, antibacterial activity, and chemical profiling of Vanda tessellata (Roxb.) Hook. ex G.Don, collected from the Paderu forest region of the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India. Leaves were shade-dried, coarsely powdered, and sequentially extracted with methanol, acetone, benzene, and water using a Soxhlet apparatus. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of diverse bioactive constituents, including alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, saponins, steroids, and glycosides, with methanol and aqueous extracts showing the richest profiles. Antibacterial activity was evaluated against Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens using the agar well diffusion method. Methanol extract exhibited the highest inhibition, notably against P. fluorescens (22.3 ± 1.2 mm) and S. aureus (18.3 ± 0.57 mm), while aqueous extract showed minimal activity. GC-MS analysis of the methanol extract identified eleven compounds, with glycerin (22.96%), n-hexadecanoic acid (18.64%), and 1,2,3,5-cyclohexanetetrol (17.42%) as major constituents. The identified compounds demonstrated reported bioactivities, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties. These findings suggest V. tessellata as a promising source of phytochemicals with potential applications in antimicrobial drug development, warranting further in vivo and mechanistic studies.