Biological Activities of Barringtonia Racemosa (Lecythidaceae) and the Quantitative Analysis of Phenolic Acids And Flavonoids Present in the Various Bioactive Extracts of the Species

Barringtonia racemosa (Family Lecythidaceae) posses several bioactivities and is used in traditional medicine of Malaysia. However, its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and allelopathic activities investigation are still lacking. The aims of this study were therefore to determine those biological activities of methanolic, ethanolic and hot water leaf, stem and bark extracts of B. racemosa and quantitative analysis of phenolic acids and flavonoids present in the various bioactive extracts of the species. The methanolic and ethanolic extracts of bark showed strong free radical scavenging activity (89.23 ± 0.40 and 91.35 ± 0.89 %) and this was even higher than butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol (antioxidant standards). The results also showed that all methanolic extracts (leaf, stem, and bark; 84.47 ± 0.05, 84.41 ± 0.28 and 84.03 ± 0.03 %) and ethanolic extracts of leaf and bark (82.58 ± 0.06 and 88.21 ± 0.06 %), respectively had similarly strong reducing power when compared to the antioxidant standards, tested in this study. The leaf of methanolic and ethanolic extracts showed strong antioxidant activity (80.03 ± 5.56 and 88.93 ± 8.32 %) in the β-carotene bleaching assay which were higher than the antioxidant standards. Although most of the hot water extracts showed weak to moderately antioxidant activities, the hot water extract of the leaf surprisingly showed strong reducing power potential (83.45 ± 0.07 %). Overall, the methanolic and ethanolic extracts of B. racemosa had effective antioxidant activities compared to hot water extracts. In Griess assay, all the B. racemosa extracts showed no significant activity on nitric oxide inhibition in RAW264.7 cell line. However, the extracts do not seem to be cytotoxic. In antibacterial assay, B. racemosa aerial parts extracts showed weak to moderate inhibitory activities against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria tested accept for boiling water extracts which was inactive. For antifungal assay, methanolic extracts of B. racemosa leaf, stem and bark exhibited the higher inhibitory activity among the four of seven fungi tested. Among different fungi tested, all extracts were found to be more sensitive to Fusarium sp. compared to the others. The seed germination assay results showed that B. racemosa extracts were able to effect the germination of the Brassica nigra L. (allelopathic activity). In the present study, quantitative analysis of phenolic compounds from B. racemosa leaf, stem and bark were performed using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) technique. The results showed that gallic acid and naringin were the major phenolic acids and flavonoids present in all different aerial parts of B. racemosa. Ferulic acid, rutin, kaempferol and luteolin were also detected in several aerial parts of B. racemosa. Overall results obtained from the biological assays suggested that B. racemosa is a source of bioactive compounds endowed with interesting biological activities, such as strongly antioxidants agents and can be rated as good dietary sources of natural phenolic antioxidants

Antioxidant activities of different aerial parts of putat (Barringtonia racemosa L.)

The antioxidant activities of methanolic, ethanolic and boiling water extracts of Barringtonia racemosa leaves, sticks, and barks were studied and their contents of total phenolics, flavonoids and carotenoids were measured. Methanolic extracts of aerial parts of the plant contained relatively higher levels of total phenolics than other extracts (leaf: 16.2 ± 0.02 mg gallic acid equivalent/g freeze dried-weight (FDW) tissue, stick: 29.9 ± 0.02 mg gallic acid equivalent/g FDW tissue, bark: 21.78 ± 0.20 mg gallic acid equivalent/g FDW tissue). The ethanolic extracts in aerial parts gave higher levels of total flavonoid (leaf: 38.55 ± 2.75 mg rutin/g FDW tissue, stick: 40.72 ± 5.91 mg rutin/g FDW tissue, bark: 68.29 ± 9.63 mg rutin/g FDW tissue). The amounts of β-carotene and lycopene were found higher in methanolic and ethanolic extracts of the leaf (342.2 ± 8.79 μg β-carotene/g FDW tissue, 77.38 ± 4.61μg lycopene/g freeze dried-weight tissue; 356.9 ± 0.93 μg β-carotene/g FDW tissue, 99.3 ± 5.29 μg lycopene/g FDW tissue,respectively). The methanolic and ethanolic extracts in all aerial parts tested exhibited very strong antioxidant properties when compared to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol in the free radical scavenging and reducing power assays

Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activities of Catfish Epidermal Mucus

The antioxidant activity of Clarias gariepinus and Clarias sp.1 epidermal mucus were determined. Aqueous extracts of C.sp1 contained relatively higher levels of protein concentration [602.04mg g-1 fresh weight] than other extracts while the organic extracts (aqueous phase) of C.sp1 gave higher levels of protein concentration (43.50mg g-1 fresh weight) than dichloromethane phase for both species. The chemical composition analysis revealed the values of moisture, ash, crude protein, fat and carbohydrate contents present in both species. The DPPH scavenging effect of all extracts and standards on the DPPH radical decreased in order of: ascorbic acid > BHT > dichoromethane phase extract of C. gariepinus > aqueous phase of C. gariepinus > acidic extract of C.sp1 > acidic extract of C. gariepinus > dichloromethane phase extract of C.sp1 > aqueous phase extract of C.sp1 > aqueous extract of C. gariepinus > aqueous extract of C.sp1 at the concentration of 100ug/ml, respectively. Reducing power activities in all extracts increased with increasing concentration except for acidic extract of C. gariepinus which decreased at concentration of 100ug/ml. The Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) also increased as the concentration increased for all extracts. However, all extracts showed lower scavenging activity, reducing power and FRAP activities than BHT and ascorbic acid at the same concentrations. This preliminary information suggest that mucus from these fish species may be a source of novel antioxidant agents for fish and human health related applicants

Antifungal activity of extracts and phenolic compounds from Barringtonia racemosa L. (Lecythidaceae)

The antifungal activity of methanolic, ethanolic and boiling water extracts of Barringtonia racemosa leaves, sticks and barks were investigate against Fusarium sp., Tricoderma koningii, Penicillium sp.,Ganoderma tropicum, Ganoderma lucidum, Aspergillus sp. and Rhizopus sp. at concentration of 50 mg/ml. Better antifungal activity was observed with the methanolic extracts in all aerial parts of B.racemosa that showed excellent inhibitory activity against all the fungi tested. The strongest inhibitory activity effect was observed with the methanolic extract of leaf against Fusarium sp. (53.45%), G.lucidum (34.57%), Aspergillus sp. (32.27%) and T. koningii (20.99%). Remarkable are also the specific effects of the boiling water extract of leaf against Fusarium sp. (51.72%) and with the ethanolic extract of bark against Rhizopus sp. (37.50%). None of the boiling water extracts of leaf, stick and bark showed inhibitory activity effect against G. tropicum and T. koningii. Among different fungi tested, Fusarium sp.was found to be more sensitive to B. racemosa extracts when compared to others. The increase in the production of phenolics in the extracts can be correlated with the induction of resistance in treated plant against phytopathogenic fungi. HPLC analysis of the extract of B. racemosa (leaves, sticks and barks) showed two different phenolic acids (gallic acid and ferrulic acid) and four different flavonoids (naringin, rutin, luteolin and kaempferol). The results of present study provide scientific basis for the use of the plant extract in the future development as antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant and antiinflammatory agent