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Assessment of the antimicrobial and free radical scavenging activities of Moluccella spinosa, Helichrysum sanguineum, and Styrax officinalis folkloric medicinal plants from Palestine

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Abstract

The emergence of pathogenic microbes with increased resistance to established antibiotics provides a major incentive for the discovery of new antimicrobial agents. Herbals may provide valuable solutions for this global problem. In addition, the replacement of harmful synthetic antioxidants with natural ones may prevent various serious diseases. The present investigation describes for the first time the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the aqueous and organic extracts of Helichrysum sanguineum, Moluccella spinosa and Styrax officinalis plants aerial parts. The free radical scavenging activity was estimated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl method, while the antimicrobial activity was evaluated against selected microbial strains from American Type Culture Collection and clinical isolates such as Shigella sonnie, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcuss feacium, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Epidermophyton floccosum and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using minimum inhibitory concentration assay. A mixture of phytochemical compounds was found in all of the studied plants extracts which also showed remarkable potentials of antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The current study provides initial data that justify the use and importance of these plants in the Palestinian traditional medicine. In addition, it provides evidence that the aqueous and organic extracts of H. sanguineum, M. spinosa and S. officinalis exhibited interesting antioxidant activity comparing with Trolox. Furthermore, the organic extract of H. sanguineum strongly exhibited bacterial growth of S. aureus, E. faecium and MRSA which suggested to be used as antibiotic alternative or as sufficient natural food preservative.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the assistance of the technicians Mohamad Arar and Linda Esa.

Authors’ contributions

NJ wrote and drafted the manuscript. NJ, MM. FH, AZ, KS, FA, AS and AE carried out experiments. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, P. O. Box 7, Nablus, Palestine

    Nidal Jaradat, Abdel Naser Zaid, Fatima Hussein, Khaled Shayeb, Afnan Sbeih & Alia Eid

  2. Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, An-Najah National University, P. O. Box 7, Nablus, Palestine

    Motasem Al-Masri

  3. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Islamic University in Madinah, P. O. Box 41433, Almadinah Almonawarah, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Ahmad Shadid

  4. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Al-Quds University, P. O. Box 20002, East Jerusalem, Palestine

    Fuad Al-Rimawi

Authors
  1. Nidal Jaradat
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  2. Motasem Al-Masri
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  3. Abdel Naser Zaid
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  4. Fatima Hussein
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  5. Khalid Ahmad Shadid
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  6. Fuad Al-Rimawi
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  7. Khaled Shayeb
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  8. Afnan Sbeih
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  9. Alia Eid
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Correspondence to Nidal Jaradat.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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All authors gave their consent for the publication of the manuscript for Nidal Jaradat to be the corresponding author.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Jaradat, N., Al-Masri, M., Zaid, A.N. et al. Assessment of the antimicrobial and free radical scavenging activities of Moluccella spinosa, Helichrysum sanguineum, and Styrax officinalis folkloric medicinal plants from Palestine. Orient Pharm Exp Med 18, 107–114 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0316-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0316-z

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