Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus, Vol 84, No 3 (2019)

Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Microbial Activities of the Root and Leaf Extracts of Ageratum conyzoides L.

Ouwafemi Akinsola OMOLE, John Olubunmi OLADIPO, Benjamin Olawale ORIMOLADE, Oluwatoyin Ola AJETOMOBI, Kehinde Stephen OLORUNMAIYE, Omotayo Olutota DOSUMU

Pages: 295-304

Summary


Plants and plant-based pharmaceuticals are the basis of many of the modern days drugs used for treatment of various ailments. The present investigations assess the qualitative and quantitative phytochemicals, DPPH antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the root and leaf extracts of Ageratum conyzoides. The qualitative screening of the phytochemicals allows us to describe alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, terpenoids, saponins, steroids and glycosides. The antimicrobial activity test of the root and leaf extracts showed considerable antibacterial and antifungal activities against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis (gram positive), Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhi (gram negative) and strains of fungi i.e. Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolon and Penicillium notatum. The root extracts showed higher antibacterial and antifungal activities on the test organisms than the leaf extracts. The phenolic content, flavonoid concentrations and antioxidant activity (free radical scavenging assay) were carried out using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, aluminum chloride and 2,2 diphenyl- 1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The total phenolic content ranged from 20.43±0.49 to 105.4±0.3 µg/mL for the root extracts and 15.31±0.1 to 94.34±0.6 µg/mL for the leaf extracts expressed as gallic acid equivalents. Flavonoid concentrations ranged from 38.92±0.18 to 243±0.32 µg/ mL and 32.65±0.33 to 182.45±0 µg/mL for the root and leaf extracts expressed as quercetin equivalents respectively. The IC50 antioxidant activities ranged from 7.34 to 14.62µg/mL and 9.18 to 15.88 µg/mL for the root and leaf extracts respectively.

 

 

 


Keywords


phytochemicals, phenolic content, flavonoid concentration

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