ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF IPOMOEA HEDERACEA

Research on antimicrobial and anti-oxidant activity from plant sources is increasing due to positive effects on human health. However relatively little work has been done to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of methanolic extracts from Ipomoea hederacea. In the present study methanolic extracts of leaves, flowers, stem, seed and roots from Ipomoea hederacea were evaluated using an antimicrobial assay, the determination of total phenolic content, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical and the total antioxidant capacity. Our results suggested that methanolic extracts exhibited high antimicrobial effects when tested against various bacterial and fungal strains (i.e. B. subtilis, P. multocida, S. aureus, E. coli, A. niger, A. flavus, A. alternate and R. solani). The total phenolic content showed the highest value for stem extract (131.11 +/- 1.22 mg/g), and the lowest for root extract (74.44 +/- 1.52 mg/g). The tested extracts were able to reduce the stable DPPH radical, reaching IC50 values from 83.14 +/- 1.02 mu g/mL for stem extract to 123.32 +/- 1.83 mu g/mL for root extract. A positive linear correlation was observed when total phenolic content was correlated with the total antioxidant capacity. Our study sustains the fact that methanolic extracts from Ipomoea hederacea can be used as components in a range of phytochemical formulation due to their antimicrobial and antioxidant potential.