Antimicrobial, DPPH scavenging and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of Thymus vulgaris, Helichrysum arenarium and Rosa damascena mill. ethanol extracts by using TLC bioautography and chemical screening methods

Abstract

Antimicrobial, DPPH scavenging and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of Thymus vulgaris, Helichrysum arenarium and Rosa damascena Mill. ethanol extracts by using TLC bioautography and chemical screening methods. The ethanol extracts of Thymus vulgaris (Tv), Helichrysum arenarium (Ha) and Rosa damascena Mill. (Rm) (red) were screened for their antimicrobial, 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and tyrosinase inhibitory activities. The test microorganisms included bacteria of Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923). Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) - bioautography, disk diffusion and well diffusion methods were used for the antimicrobial activity assays. Rosa damascena Mill. extract was effective against E. coli and all plant extracts showed antimicrobial activity against S. aureus. The phenolic acids in the structure of the extracts were also identified by LC-MS analysis. Human blood agar well diffusion method and TLC-DPPH assays were used to identify the hemolytic and antioxidant activity of plant extracts, respectively, along with 10 compounds including phenolic acids as a standard. Among these compounds, caffeic acid (Rf = 0.68) was detected in all extracts while vanillic acid (Rf = 0.75), and gallic acid (Rf = 0.51) was found in Tv extract. Kojic acid (Rf = 0.36), on the other hand, was detected in Rm extract as a tyrosinase inhibitor. All plant extracts presented tyrosinase inhibitory activities on TLC-bioautography assay.