Phytochemical, antimicrobial and antioxidant preliminary screening of a traditional Palestinian medicinal plant, Ononis pubescens L.

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance has become a serious global concern, and the discovery of novel antimicrobial herbal constituents may provide valuable solutions to overcome this problem. It is important to identify new sources of natural antioxidants and antimicrobials. The present study describes for the first time the antioxidant, and antibacterial activities of various fractions of Ononis pubescens L., a traditional Palestinian medicinal plant. Methods: Antimicrobial activity was tested against selected strains from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and clinical isolates including Shigella sonnie, Staphylococcus aureus, Entrococuss feacium, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Candida albicans and Epidermatophyto flacosum using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay, while antioxidant activity was analyzed using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method. Results: A mixture of phytochemicals was found in all of the studied fractions of O. pubescens, which also showed remarkable potential with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Conclusion: The current study provides initial data that justify the use and importance of Ononis species in Palestinian folkloric medicine. Our results showed that Ononis pubescens n-hexane fraction has powerful antibacterial bioactivity against Staphylococcus aureus, as well as the acetone, n-hexane and methanol fractions which showed excellent potential against Epidermatophyto flacosum fungi, while the acetone fraction showed the highest antioxidant activity among other fractions. Further investigations are needed to identify and characterize these constituents.