Abstract
Microbial infections are increasing worldwide, and the widespread emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens poses a severe threat to public health. Medicinal plants are well-known sources of bioactive ingredients. This study was designed to determine the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of extracts from Platycerium stemaria. The serial exhaustive extraction method using a solvent of increasing polarity from nonpolar (hexane) to polar (water) was designed to prepare crude extracts; liquid-liquid partition was used to fractionate of active extracts. The extracts and fractions were screened for antimicrobial activity on bacteria and yeasts using the microdilution method. The antioxidant activity was done using DPPH and FRAP assays. Out of the sixteen extracts screened, four (PsHex, PsH2O(H), PsMeOH(EA), and PsMeOH) exhibited potency with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 31.25 to 500 μg/mL. Out of the four extracts, two, including PsMeOH and PsMeOH(EA), exhibited DPPH radical scavenging activity with the antiradical power of 8.94 × 10−5 and 47.96 × 10−5, respectively, and ferric reducing antioxidant power values ranging from 0.34 to 61.53 μg equivalent Vit C/g of extract. The phytochemical screening of the promising crude extracts revealed flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, tannins, terpenoids, saponins, and anthraquinones. This study reports the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of P. stemaria for the first time. The results showed that the serial exhaustive extraction approach used in this study allowed capturing the antimicrobial and antioxidant metabolites beyond the single extraction, indicating the need for a rigorous choice of an appropriate solvent and method for extracting P. stemaria. Further investigation is needed to characterize the active ingredients present in the promising extracts.
Highlights
Microbial infections are increasing worldwide with antimicrobial resistance emerging as one of the principal public health problems, threatening effective prevention and treatment [1]
Bacterial infections due to antimicrobial resistance claim a minimum of 700 000 lives per year worldwide, including 230,000 people who die from multidrugresistant tuberculosis
The investigation revealed a significant variation in extraction yield and antimicrobial activity of extracts as a function of solvent and microbial pathogen used
Summary
Microbial infections are increasing worldwide with antimicrobial resistance emerging as one of the principal public health problems, threatening effective prevention and treatment [1]. Bacterial infections due to antimicrobial resistance claim a minimum of 700 000 lives per year worldwide, including 230,000 people who die from multidrugresistant tuberculosis. It is projected that by 2050, these infections will cause the deaths of 10 million people per year and will cost a staggering amount of US$100 trillion to the global economy through loss of productivity [2, 3]. The major challenge in global health care is the need for novel, effective, and affordable medicines, especially in developing countries where these infections are more prevalent [4]. Forced with the growing resistance of microbial strains to antibiotics and other drugs, the search for alternative treatment is needed.
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