Fruits of Rosa brunonii Lindle: An Ethnomedicinal Plant from Foothills of Himalaya with Antibacterial, Antitumor and Cytotoxic Properties

Abstract

Traditional uses of plants are one of the important starting points in search of newer and more effective bioactive drug. Rosa brunonii (plant’s family; Rosaceae) is an ethnomedicinal shrub found in lesser Himalaya region. In traditional medicines, it is used as “blood purifier, to stimulate wound healing, to treat infectious diseases”. So, by considering the medicinal potential of Rosa brunonii, the methanolic fruit’s extract was tested against two gram positive and three gram negative bacteria by agar well diffusion method. The maximum antibacterial potential was noticed against Klebsiella pneumoniae (94 ± 0.3 mm inhibition zone, MIC = 62.5 ± 1.1 µg/mL), while minimum antibacterial activity was shown by the plant extract against Bacillus subtilis (MIC = 250 ± 7.2 µg/mL). The cytotoxic properties of crude methanolic extract were determined by brine shrimp lethality test. A dose-dependent cytotoxic effect was observed for the plant extract at p < 0.05, F (3,8) = 1.58 with LD50 220.95 ± 1.03 µg/mL. Antitumor potential was evaluated by potato disk antitumor bioassay. Fruit’s extract of R. brunonii showed maximum tumor inhibition at 1000 µg/mL by 72.73% with IC50 = 655.65 ± 0.03 µg/mL. Preliminary phytochemical analysis revealed that extract is devoid of alkaloid but rich in phenolics. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined as 66.73 ± 3.89 µg/mg GAE and 46.51 ± 0.96 µg/mg QE, respectively, in R. brunonii. The present study underlined the ethnomedicinal importance of R. brunonii and promised useful candidate for the search of newer and effective bioactive constituents.