In vitro study of antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxicity properties of Cordia myxa fruit extract

Abstract

Background and objectives: Medicinal plants have recently received much interest because of the low production costs and fewer side effects associated with remedies made from them compared with chemical therapies. The current study investigated the antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxicity properties of an ethanol extract of Cordiamyxa fruit (CMF) extract.

Materials and methods: The antioxidant activity of CMF was determined by measuring electron-donating ability with a 1,1-diphenyl-2picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The phenolic content was calculated as Gallic acid equivalents using the Folin- Ciocalteu assay. To evaluate the efficiency of CMF, five multidrug-resistant bacterial strains (Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were tested using the agar diffusion method. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activity of CMF was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-dipheltetrazolium (MTT) assay against a healthy fibroblast (L929) cell line.

Results: The CMF ethanol extract was revealed to have substantial phenol and flavonoid content (113.71± 0.04 mg gallic acid/g dried extract and 68.9 ± 0.002 mg quercetin/g dried extract, respectively) that showed the highest percentage of DPPH inhibition (86.45%), which was achieved by ethanol extract at the concentration of 60 μg/ml, with excellent antibacterial activity against S. aureus, E. coli, S. enterica, B. subtilis, and P. aeruginosa (17.5 ± 1.0, 14.9 ± 1.0, 13.3 ± 1.5, 15.7 ± 1.0, and 13.8 ± 1.5 mm IZ, respectively). In addition, no expressive antiproliferative effect was recorded in the assessment of cytotoxicity on L929 cells.

Conclusion: According to the current findings, CMF exhibits low cytotoxicity, antibacterial activity, and antioxidant properties in vitro and can be developed for pharmaceutical and medical uses in the future.

Keywords: Antibacaterial; Antioxidant activity; Cordiamyxa fruit; Cytotoxicity.

Fig. 1.

Illustrates a part of the C. myxa tree bearing the fruit used in the current study

Fig. 2.

DPPH free radical scavenging activity, % inhibition for standard drug, and phenolic extract tested at various concentrations

Fig. 3.

Cytotoxic effect of CMF extract on L929 cell line assessed by mitochondrial activity (% Mean ± SD). Cells were treated for 24, 48, and 72 h with different CMF concentrations (0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/mL). No treatment was given to the control group (100% cell viability). L929: healthy fibroblast cell line