Phytochemical, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Studies of the Roots Extracts of Bersama abyssinica Fresen

Abstract

Medicinal plants contain a wide range of secondary metabolites that can be used to treat chronic illness as well as infectious diseases. Bersama abyssinica is selected for this study because of its uses in traditional medicine as an antimicrobial agent. The bark, root, and leaf decoctions are taken to treat a range of stomach disorders such as abdominal pain, colic, diarrhoea, intestinal worms and amoebiasis. A stem bark decoction is drunk to cure cancer and rheumatism. The overall objective of this study was to isolate and characterize antioxidant and antibacterial compounds from Bersama abyssinica. The roots were extracted successively with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol followed by separation using silica gel column chromatography which afforded two compounds ABS-EM and ABS 120. ABS-EM and ABS-120 were identified as isomer of betunilic acid and phthalate, respectively. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by using spectroscopic analysis (IR and 1D NMR). Furthermore, the extracts were assessed for its antibacterial activities using disk diffusion method (gram positive (S.aureus, B. subtilis) and gram negative (E. coli, P. mirabilis, P. pneumonia). Results revealed that the two compounds isolated in the present work showed pronounceable against S. aureus and B. subtilis for isomer of betunilic acid and S. aureus, E.coli for phtalate. B. abyssinica roots of methanol extract had high antioxidant activities comparable with ascorbic acid.