Abstract

Isaac John Umaru*

ABSTRACT

Recent years have witnessed enhanced research work reported on plants and plant products. In this regard, plants with traditional therapeutic usage are being screened more efficiently to be considered as a substitution or as a better alternative agent for Human Pathogens. Antioxidant activity, antibacterial, antifungal properties, colour, phytochemical and FT-IR spectral analysis of flowers belonging to Hibiscus moscheutos was determined. Radical scavenging activity of sample extracts were determined based on the percent inhibition of DPPH and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Total phenolics were estimated based on the Folin–Ciocalteu method, while, vanillin–HCl and aluminum chloride methods were employed to estimate total tannins and flavonoids in the sample extracts, respectively. To determine total flavonols and anthocyanin contents, spectrophotometric method was employed. For antibacterial activities, modified agar disk diffusion method was adopted. Color analysis was performed using a colorimeter, while functional groups of compounds were identified using a FTIR-spectrophotometer. In this study, the flower extracts encompass high amount of antioxidant compounds and exhibit significant antioxidant activities, which depended on extraction solvents. Methanol extracts of Hibiscus moscheutos had high total phenolic, total flavonoid and total flavonol content, and showed highest activity for inhibition of DPPH. The colour analysis of Hibiscus moscheutos showed lower chroma and hue angle values. The crude extracts of hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol, extracts with concentration levels at 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 mg/mL were shown to significantly affect the inhibition of bacterial and fungal selected. Among the crude extracts, ethyl acetate and methanol extract was shown to be the most potent in terms of antifungal activities. The profile of the flower extract observation proved the chemical constituent that the treatment altered the fungal and bacterial morphology, which leads to the organism growth inhibition. For the in vivo bioassay, the pathogen treated with ethyl acetate and methanol extract at 250 and 500 mg/mL showed the higher inhibition value. There were 49 chemical compounds identified in Hibiscus moscheutos methanol extract using GCMS analysis. The top five major compounds were dominated by squalene triterpene (13.17%), phytol (3.18%), Neophytadiene (5.36%), spinasterol acetate (7.41%), and tocopherol acetate (7.41%). Some of these significant compounds possess high antifungal and antibacterial activities. This study proved that Hibiscus moscheutos flowers from the five solvent extract could be useful for inhibiting the selected pathogens which has potential as a natural antifungal and bacterial agent.