Chemical and biological investigations of the leaves of Gynura procumbens

Abstract

The crude n-hexane (HX), dichloromethane (DCM), methanol (ME) and ethyl acetate (EA) extracts of the leaves of Gynura procumbens were subjected to antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal activities and cytotoxicity against brine shrimp nauplii. The DCM and EA extracts exhibited mild antimicrobial activities, whereas, HX and ME extracts did not show any sort of sensitivity. On the other hand, the brine shrimp lethality with LC50 values was 70.71, 0.78, 4.42 and 59.46 µg/mL for HX, DCM, ME and EA extracts, respectively indicates the presence of potent bioactive compounds. At the same time, among the four crude extracts, only ME and HX extracts showed potential antioxidant activity with IC50 values of 20.35 and 48.0µg/mL. A pure compound was isolated from HX extract and the structure of the compound was elucidated as stigmasterol by means of 1H NMR spectroscopy.