Bioactive compounds of Citrullus colocynthis aerial parts: characterization and biological properties

Abstract

In this study, the bioactive components of Citrullus colocynthis extracts were analyzed in view of their potential use as antioxidant/antibacterial agent. The bioactive compounds were extracted in different organic solvents (hexane, ethanol and ethyl acetate) and analyzed by column chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS). Three distinct fractions were collected and subsequently examined, one from ethyl acetate extraction (I) and two from ethanolic extraction (II and III). p-Coumaric acid was the major phenolic acid from the ethyl acetate extracts (0.11 ± 0.023 mg/kg) while resorcinol was the major phenolic compound from the ethanol extracts (25.00 ± 3.21 mg/kg). Twenty-four bioactive compounds were identified by GC-MS analysis where 1-docosanol pentafluoropropionate was the major bioactive compound in ethanol extracts. Among the ethanol extracts, the highest antioxidant activity was found in fraction III. The highest anti-bacterial activity values, measured in terms of the size of the inhibition zone (mm) against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus, i.e. 24 ± 1.62 and 22 ± 2.19 mm, respectively, were attained at 24 µg/mL for fractions III and I. From the results achieved in this work, ethanol extracts of C. colocynthis aerial parts could be considered promising as antioxidant and anti-infectious agents.