Chemical constituents, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities of the aerial parts of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius

Abstract

Preliminary phytochemical investigation of crude n-Hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of the aerial parts of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius revealed the presence of anthraquinones, glycosides, steroids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and terpenoids. All the crude extracts gave a clear zone of inhibition against the growth of the test bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiellae pneumonae) and fungi (Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, penicillium notatum and Rhizopus stolonifer) at different concentrations, except ethyl acetate extract which showed no antifungal property on Rhizopus stolonifer. Ethyl acetate and methanol extracts exhibited significant antioxidant activities by scavenging DPPH free radicals with IC of 12.14 and 93.85 μg/ml respectively. GC-MS analysis of n-hexane and methanol extracts showed nine 50 compounds each, while ethyl acetate extracts afforded ten compounds. Phytol is the most abundant constituent in n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts with their corresponding percentage of abundance of 41.07%, 35.42% and 35.07%.

Keywords: Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, Antioxidant activity, GC-MS analysis, Phytochemicals, Phytol.