Abstract
In the quest for new medicines, the methanolic, hexanic, and aqueous extracts of Adiantum caudatum leaves, obtained by Soxhlet extraction, were analyzed for phenolic and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. TPCs (total phenolic content) of the methanolic, aqueous and hexanic extracts were 27.7, 21.1, and 16.7 μg of gallic acid equivalents per mL, respectively, while TFCs (total flavonoid content) were 13.2, 11.6, and 10.0 μg of rutin equivalents per mL, respectively. Antioxidant activities of the extracts in reducing power, FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power), phosphomolybdate and ABTS assays follow the same order of methanolic ˃ aqueous ˃ hexanic. In the DPPH assay, however, the aqueous extract exhibited a slightly higher antioxidant activity than the methanolic one. Methanol is therefore a better solvent to extract most of the antioxidant components from A. caudatum leaves. In lipid peroxidation inhibitory assay, the extracts showed almost similar behavior and their activity decreased gradually with time. The aqueous extract was the strongest inhibitor after two days, but the hexanic became the most potent after about three days. The antibacterial potential of the extracts was determined against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Towards all the microbes, the aqueous extract was the most potent and the hexanic the least. P. aeruginosa was the most susceptible strain, while the aqueous and methanolic extracts exhibited a slightly higher efficacy against this pathogen than the drug amoxicillin. In conclusion, A. caudatum can potentially provide a remedy against disorders caused by oxidative stress and infections.
Highlights
Adiantum caudatum is an evergreen fern commonly called trailing maidenhair.Adiantum, a large genus of about 200 species, is distributed globally from temperate to tropical regions and has many medicinal properties [1,2,3,4,5]
Potassium persulfate, dipotassium hydrogenphosphate, ferric chloride, monosodium dihydrogenphosphate, potassium ferricyanide, trichloroacetic acid, disodium hydrogenphosphate, Rutin, Mueller-Hinton agar (MHA), and Folin-Ciocalteu reagent were purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany), gallic acid from Riedel-de-Haen (Seelze, Germany), ammonium molybdate, linoleic acid, ferrous chloride tetrahydrate and aluminum chloride from BDH Labs (Cambridge, England), DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl) and ascorbic acid from MP Biomedicals (Illkirch, France), sodium acetate from Daejung (Siheung City, Korea), ammonium thiocyanate from Alfa-Aesar (Karlsruhe, Germany), amoxicillin from
The finely divided powder of the shade-dried leaves (15 days) of the fern A. caudatum was subjected to hot extraction using a Soxhlet apparatus
Summary
Adiantum caudatum is an evergreen fern commonly called trailing maidenhair (family Adiantaceae). A large genus of about 200 species, is distributed globally from temperate to tropical regions and has many medicinal properties [1,2,3,4,5]. The fern A. caudatum (Syn. A. incisum Forssk) has been reported from northern hilly areas of Pakistan including Kashmir, Murree, Galliyat, Rawalpindi, and Mangora [6,7,8,9,10]. It is used as a remedy to cure cough, diabetes, jaundice, fever, diarrhea, skin diseases, wounds, and as a natural antibiotic [2,4,5,10,11,12,13]. The plant has been shown to possess terpenoids and flavonoids [6,10,14]
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