Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of two endangered plant species Atropa belladonna and Matricaria chamomilla.
BACKGROUND
Plants are the natural source of antioxidants as well as antimicrobial compounds that has great potentials in pharmaceutical industry. In the present study, two medicinal plants Atropa belladonna and Matricaria chamomilla were collected from Northern areas of Pakistan.


METHODS
The extracts of the collected plants were obtained by microwave assisted extraction (MAE) with changing parameters, power level and time; methanol and ethanol were solvents used during extraction. The extracts of plants were tested against different bacterial strains.


RESULTS
It was observed that ethanolic extracts of Atropa belladonna has more significant antimicrobial activity against S.aureus than E.coli. In parallel, methanolic extract of Matricaria chamomilla showed greater significant antibacterial activity against S.aureus when compared with E.coli. In comparison, ethanolic extracts of Matricaria chamomilla has shown more significant results against S. aureus than E.coli (p ≤ 0.05). Both plants had no antibacterial activity against S.typhi. The free radical scavenging activity observed by DPPH assay, indicate that both plants have antioxidant activity at all levels of concentrations in solvent tested during the present work. However, methanolic extracts had greater antioxidant activity when compared with ethanolic extracts.


CONCLUSIONS
Present study is thus helpful in highlighting present potentials for antioxidant and antimicrobial properties in the selected plants.
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Neelma
N
Munir
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Ayesha Saleha
AS
Iqbal
QOL, WTO, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore.
Imran
I
Altaf
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Rasheeda
R
Bashir
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Nadia
N
Sharif
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Faiza
F
Saleem
Department of Biotechnology, Lahore College for Women University.
Shagufta
S
Naz
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001532:Atropa belladonna; D001713:Biphenyl Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects*; D031168:Matricaria; D010154:Pakistan; D010851:Picrates / Q000378:metabolism; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000975:Antioxidants; D001713:Biphenyl Compounds; D010851:Picrates; D010936:Plant Extracts; C004931:1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl
Antimicrobial; Atropa belladonna; Matricaria chamomilla; antioxidant