Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Antileishmanial Study of Different Parts of Peganum harmala | IJB_INNSPUB
By: Zainab Gul Kanwal, Abdul Hafeez, Ihsan Ul Haq, Tofeeq-Ur-Rehman, Syed Aun Muhammad, Irum Shazadi, Nighat Fatima, Nisar Ur Rehman
Peganum harmala is bright green, densely foliaged and herbaceous plant, used in folkloric medicine for the treatment of various diseases like asthma, jaundice and lumbago. It contains biologically active secondary metabolites of diverse chemical nature. Therefore present research was designed to determine antioxidant, antimicrobial and antileishmanial potential and phytochemical analysis of different parts of P. harmala. Two plant parts seeds and leaves were selected for comprehensive investigation. According to the results, P. harmala seeds extract showed potent antioxidant activity with IC50 values ranging between 40-129 µg/ml. In case of antibacterial assay, P. harmala seeds showed better inhibitory activity than leaves against both strains i.e.
Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa with values ranging between 70 to 100% while in case of antifungal assay water-acetone extract of seeds showed significant antifungal effect against Aspergillus niger. In terms of cytotoxic assay, hexane extract of seeds of were more cytotoxic against shrimp larvae (LD50 = 57.07 µg/ml). Aqueous extract of leaves of and acetone extract of seeds showed < 80% mortality in antileishmanial assay. GC-MS analysis revealed that leaves and seeds contain some important biological metabolites. It is concluded that selected plants could be a potential source of antileishmanial, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer lead compound. Hence it is indicated to further investigate this plant in vitro as well as in vivo for new drug discovery.
Original Articles in Source: Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Antileishmanial Study of Different Parts of Peganum harmala
