Quercetin and rutin, two flavonoids were examined for antimycobacterial activities against M. tuberculosis H37Rv (ATCC 27294). The quercetin exhibited (99.30 ± 0.268%) in (LRP) assay at 200 µg/ml and 56.21 ± 0.97% inhibition in (BMD) at 50 µg/ml, whereas rutin exhibited (90.40 ± 0.68%) in LRP assay at 200 µg/ml and 56.10 ± 0.67% inhibition in BMD at 50 µg/ml. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was found to be 6.25 µg ml−1 and 25 µg ml−1 respectively. The current investigation suggests that quercetin has better inhibitory activity than rutin. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.