Comparative study among Avicennia marina, Phragmites australis, and Moringa oleifera based ethanolic-extracts for their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities

Muhammad Sohaib; Fahad N I Al-Barakah; Hussein M Migdadi; Fohad Mabood Husain

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.08.062

Comparative study among Avicennia marina, Phragmites australis, and Moringa oleifera based ethanolic-extracts for their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2022 Jan;29(1):111-122. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.08.062. Epub 2021 Aug 25.

Authors

Muhammad Sohaib¹, Fahad N I Al-Barakah¹, Hussein M Migdadi^{2

3}, Fohad Mabood Husain⁴

Affiliations

¹ Soil Science Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
² Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
³ National Agricultural Research Center, Baqa 19381, Jordan.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Microbial resistance and other emerging health risk problems related to the side effects of synthetic drugs are the major factors that result in the research regarding natural products. Fruits, leaves, seeds, and oils-based phyto-constituents are the most important source of pharmaceutical products. Plant extract chemistry depends largely on species, plant components, solvent utilized, and extraction technique. This study was aimed to compare the ethanolic extracts of a mangrove plant, i.e., Avicennia marina (1E: Lower half of A. marina's pneumatophores, 2E: A. marina's leaves, 3E: Upper half of A. marina's pneumatophores, and 4E: A. marina's shoots), with non-mangrove plants, i.e., Phragmites australis (5E: P. australis's shoot), and Moringa oleifera (6E: M. oleifera's leaves) for their antimicrobial activities, total phenolic contents, antioxidant activity, and cytotoxicity potential. The antimicrobial activity assays were performed on gram-positive bacteria (i.e., Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus), gram-negative bacteria (i.e., Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and fungi (i.e., Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, and Rhizopus spp.). We estimated antioxidant activity by TAC, DPPH, and FRAP assays, and the cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT assay. The results of antimicrobial activities revealed that B. subtilis was the most sensitive to the tested plant extracts compared to S. aureus, while it only showed sensitivity to 6E and Imipenem. 5E and 6E showed statistically similar results against P. aeruginosa as compared to Ceftazidime. E. coli was the most resistant bacteria against tested plant extracts. Among the tested plant extracts, maximum inhibition activity was observed by 6E against A. niger (22 ± 0.57 mm), which was statistically similar to the response of 6E against C. albicans and 3E against Rhizopus spp. 2E did not show any activity against tested fungi. We found that 6E (208.54 ± 1.92 mg g^-1) contains maximum phenolic contents followed by 1E (159.42 ± 3.22 mg g^-1), 5E (131.08 ± 3.10 mg g^-1), 4E (i.e., 72.41 ± 2.96 mg g^-1), 3E (67.41 ± 1.68 mg g^-1), and 2E (48.72 ± 1.71 mg g^-1). The results depict a significant positive correlation between the phenolic contents and the antioxidant activities. As a result, phenolic content may be a natural antioxidant source.

Keywords: Antimicrobial; Antioxidant; Avicennia marina; Cytotoxicity; Medicinal plant; Moringa oleifera; Phragmites australis; Phytochemical; Plant extract.