Phytochemical Screening and antioxidant activity antibacterial activity for Ephedra altissima plant growing in city of Alkums libya
الملخص
This study aimed to estimate the natural products in the plant Ephedra altissima by qualitatively assessing its chemical compound content through tests for chemical groups in both aqueous and ethyl acetate extracts. The yield of extraction using water was 12.881%, which was higher compared to the yield using ethyl acetate at 3.73%. The chemical analysis of the aerial parts of the studied plants (Ephedra altissima) revealed the presence of compounds such as alkaloids, carbohydrates, saponins, phytosterols, tannins, flavonoids, proteins, and terpenoids. The chemical analysis of the aqueous extract of Ephedra altissima showed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, saponins, phytosterols, flavonoids, and terpenoids, while the ethyl acetate extract contained alkaloids, carbohydrates, phytosterols, tannins, flavonoids, proteins, and terpenoids.
It was noted that the aqueous extract of Ephedra altissima did not contain proteins or tannins, while saponins were not detected in the ethyl acetate extract.
Quantitative and qualitative estimations of chemical compounds were conducted using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), which revealed the presence of several compounds in significant quantities in the studied plant. The results indicated that the aerial parts of Ephedra altissima contained 26 chemical substances, with the most abundant compounds being: 28.76% Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester and 34.74% Hexadecatrienoic acid, methyl ester. The highest abundant compound in the aerial parts of the caper plant was 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)-, methyl ester.
Furthermore, antioxidant activity was studied using the DPPH test to estimate the antioxidant effectiveness, with the results showing that the extract of Ephedra altissima had a low IC50 value, indicating increased antioxidant activity of the sample.
Thus, it can be concluded that the aerial parts of Ephedra altissima exhibit antioxidant activity with a value of approximately 13.49 µg/mL. When comparing these results with ascorbic acid (8.041), which is used as an antioxidant, it can be said that the extracts showed lower antioxidant activity than the reference compound.
Finally, the antibacterial effects of the plant extracts were studied by testing their antibacterial effectiveness against two pathogenic bacterial strains: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The results showed that the aqueous extract of Ephedra altissima demonstrated inhibitory activity against the gram-negative Escherichia coli, with a larger inhibition zone of 10 mm compared to the ethyl acetate extract, which had an inhibition zone of 6 mm. Conversely, the inhibition activity of the aqueous extract against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus showed lower inhibitory activity with a zone of 6 mm compared to the ethyl acetate extract, which had an inhibition zone of 12 mm.