Abstract
The present work describes the in vitro biological activities of the crude extracts (petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol) prepared from the species Ephedra altissima Desf. The estimation of total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin contents were carried out using the Folin-Ciocalteu, trichloroaluminum and acidified vanillin methods, respectively. The evaluation of the in vitro antioxidant activities were performed by three different methods namely: scavenging of the free radical ABTS, permanganate reducing antioxidant capacity, and potentiometric assay. In addition, the antibacterial activity was assessed by the agar disk diffusion assay against seven bacterial strains. The results of the phytochemical screening revealed the presence of several types of secondary metabolites. The EtOAc extract exhibited the highest content of phenols (125.62 ± 1.51 μg EGA mg-1 of extract). The greatest flavonoid and tannin contents were observed for n-BuOH extract (19.18 ± 0.39 µg EQ mg-1 of extract and 8.95 ± 1.70 μg EC mg-1 of extract, respectively). Moreover, the EtOAc extract revealed potent antioxidant activity in all the tested methods. Furthermore, the aqueous extract from the species E. altissima showed a good ability to reduce iron III to iron II with a value of 0.68 ± 0.3 moL eq L-1 in potentiometric assay. All the crude extracts (PE, EtOAc and n-BuOH) displayed inhibition of bacterial growth against at least three strains with values of MIC ranging from 3.125 to 50 µg mL-1. Therefore, these results suggest that Ephedra altissima could be used as an important source of natural bioactive compounds with antioxidant and antibacterial properties.
Highlights
IntroductionOxidative stress is a complex process, characterized by an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to eliminate these reactive species through the use of endogenous and exogenous antioxidants (Santos-Sánchez, Salas-Coronado, Villanueva-Cañongo, & Hernández-Carlos, 2019)
The aim of this study is the quantification of total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin contents and the evaluation of in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial activities of petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanolic extracts obtained from the species E. altissima
Phytochemical screening of the crude extracts (PE, EtOAc and n-BuOH) obtained from the plant E. altissima revealed the presence of tannins, steroids, flavonoids, coumarins, terpenoids, carotenoids and saponins
Summary
Oxidative stress is a complex process, characterized by an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to eliminate these reactive species through the use of endogenous and exogenous antioxidants (Santos-Sánchez, Salas-Coronado, Villanueva-Cañongo, & Hernández-Carlos, 2019). Many natural and synthetic compounds showed the ability to reduce oxidative stress by the elimination of free radicals using several mechanisms of actions (scavenging, reducing and chelating). The inappropriate use of these agents can generate multi-resistant strains. For this reason, several research studies are focused on the discovery of new herbal medicines that can effectively combat the phenomenon of multi-resistance and widely help in the prevention of oxidative stress-related diseases (Gupta & Birdi, 2017)
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