Antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of Opopanax hispidus (Apiaceae) extracts

Abstract

The present study was aimed to investigate antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of methanol and ethyl-acetate extracts from dried aerial parts, inflorescences and fruits of Opopanax hispidus (Friv.) Griseb., fam. Apiaceae. The antioxidant potential was evaluated with the help of two in vitro antioxidant models – DPPH and ABTS assays and estimation of total phenolic and flavonoids using spectrophotometric methods. BHA and Vitamin C were used as standard and positive control for above models. Microdilution assay was used to evaluate antimicrobial potential for the most common human gastrointestinal pathogenic microbial strains. The results of DPPH and ABTS assay showed that the highest antioxidant activity have methanol (IC50=1.157 mg/ml) and ethyl-acetate (IC50=3.167 mg/ml) extracts from inflorescences. The highest value of total phenolic (89.95±0.005 mg GA/g) and total flavonoid (24.06 ± 0.004 mg Qu/g) was measured in inflorescences extracts also. Results indicate that both extracts (methanol and ethyl-acetate) of inflorescences have high amount of phenol and flavonoids, which could be responsible for its good antioxidant activity.The most susceptible were Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli on ethyl-acetate extracts from fruits and inflorescence, respectively. This is the first record of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Opopanax hispidus from Serbia. It is also worth noting that these results validate the therapeutic use of the plant in traditional medicine.