Antibacterial and anticancer activities of Nymphaea nauchali rhizome extracts

Abstract

The present study was conducted to discover the antibacterial and anticancer activities of Nymphaea nauchali rhizome peel and core extracts. Antibacterial activity of ethanol, methanol, and acetone extracts of N. nauchali rhizome peel and inner core extracts has been tested against six biofilm-forming bacterial pathogens, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, coagulase –ve Staph. aureus, Staph. aureus, and P. vulgaris by agar well diffusion assay. The size of inhibition zones around the wells in the presence of different extracts was used to determine the sensitivity of test bacteria. The anticancer activity of extracts was checked using the MCF-7 cell line, and potency was defined in terms of IC50 values. Methanol, ethanol, and acetone peel extracts showed more antibacterial activities against all test bacteria than inner core extracts. E. faecalis was highly resistant to acetone inner core extracts, and P. aeruginosa showed higher sensitivity to ethanol inner core extract. Ethanolic extracts of rhizome peel and inner core were more effective against the MCF-7 cell line than methanol and acetone extracts. IC50 values of 208.20 μgml−1and 136.16 μgml−1were noted for peel and inner core ethanol extracts, respectively. N. nauchali rhizome can be used as a potential entrant in developing novel antibacterial and anticancer phytoformulations.