Phytochemical Profiling, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities of Leaf Extracts From Rhus leptodictya

Abstract

An integral part of nature is herbal plants which contain natural substance essential to promote health. The focal point of this research resides on the phytochemical, antioxidant and antibacterial investigations of Rhus leptoditya leaves. Hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, acetone, and methanol solvent extracts were tested for their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Phytochemical analysis of R. leptodictya extracts revealed the presence of phenols, tannins, saponins, and flavonoids. Acetone extract with total flavonoid contents of 18.22 ± 2.1 mg/g while methanol extract with phenol contents (0.38 ± 0.002 mg/g) exhibited the highest amount amongst the studied extracts in the preliminary phytochemicals screening. The antioxidant activity of the plant extracts was evaluated using TLC based standard qualitative 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The methanol and acetone extracts showed maximum antioxidant bands compared to other selected solvents and promising radical scavenging activity at par with the standard antioxidant ascorbic acid (IC50 = 0.125 ± 0.013 mg/ml). The bioautography assay also demonstrated the bacterial growth inhibition of active compounds present in leave extracts. Acetone and ethyl acetate fractions showed the highest number of antibacterial active compounds against S. aureus. Minimum inhibitory concentration of the extracts examined using microplates of 96 wells containing Muller-Hinton methods against some bacterial strains, revealed methanol and acetone fractions with the lowest MIC value of 0.04 mg/ml against S. pneumoniae, while methanol extract possesses 0.008 mg/ml against S. aureus and B. subtilis. Results from this study project the R. leptodictya leave extracts constituents as health supplements that could be useful in food industries and in the treatment of various infectious diseases.