Abstract
Medicinal plants have been the main focus of natural product research. However, recent research has revealed that lower plants including bryophytes are also a major resource of biologically active compounds with novel structures. Sri Lanka is considered as a biodiversity hotspot with a higher degree of endemism flora including bryophytes. In this study, different species of bryophytes were investigated for their antimicrobial and alpha-amylase inhibitory activities. The air-dried plant materials of 6 different bryophyte species, Marchantia sp., Fissidens sp., Plagiochila sp., Sematophyllum demissum, Hypnum cupressiforme, and Calymperes motley, were subjected to sequential cold extraction with 3 different organic solvents. All three types of organic crude extracts were subjected to screening of antimicrobial bioassays using the disc-diffusion method against 3 bacterial strains and 1 fungal strain. According to the results obtained, 6 extracts out of 18 showed antibacterial activity for tested Gram-positive bacteria and 1 active against Gram-negative bacteria. Two extracts showed activity against the pathogenic fungus strain. Extracts from some plants were active against tested bacterial as well as fungal species. TLC-based bioautographic study was carried out to identify the corresponding active bands which is useful for active compound isolation. Furthermore, the ethyl acetate extracts were subjected to evaluate alpha-amylase inhibitory activity where three extracts out of six extracts showed moderate inhibitory activity for alpha-amylase with IC50 ranging 8–30%.
Highlights
The bryophyte species were authenticated as Marchantia sp. (MR), Fissidens sp. (FS), Plagiochila sp. (PG), Sematophyllum demissum (SD), Hypnum cupressiforme (HC), and Calymperes motley (CM)
Since Sri Lanka is an isolated island with remarkable biodiversity among its flora, the density and the number of bryophyte species are very high
Marchantia sp. are a good source of bioactive metabolites, and a number of compounds were isolated from different Marchantia sp. [23, 24]
Summary
Recent research has revealed that lower plants including bryophytes are a major resource of biologically active compounds with novel structures. Sri Lanka is considered as a biodiversity hotspot with a higher degree of endemism flora including bryophytes. Extracts from some plants were active against tested bacterial as well as fungal species. Sri Lanka is considered as a biodiversity hotspot comprised of a rich biological diversity of plant species with a high degree of endemism [6, 7]. Us, lower plants including bryophytes of Sri Lanka represent an almost completely uninvestigated, untapped, yet a significant and unique resource for the discovery of new biologically active natural products
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