Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Methanolic Extract of Ficus Fistulosa Leaves

Abstract

Ficus fistulosa is a traditional medicine to use in the remedies of diarrhea, diabetics, malaria. However, the antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity of leaves extract of Ficus fistulosa have not been previously studied. Therefore, the objective of this study is to find out whether the extracts of Ficus fistulosa plant has antioxidant and antimicrobial properties or not. These results could then be used to carry out further experiments to find out the active phytochemicals and work with them. Furthermore, it can be seen that the demand for both antimicrobials and antioxidants is increasing in recent years and to be able to find both these agents in one plant will definitely help us save time and cost. The standard procedures were followed for measuring the antioxidant activity and the ability of the plant extract to scavenge DPPH. As for the antimicrobial activity, disk diffusion method using cultures of Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosae, E. coli, E. coli mutant were carried out. The positive control ascorbic acid of which IC50 value is 11.93 μg/ml. On the other hand, the methanol extract showed promising DPPH free radical scavenging activity with IC50 value 16.66 μg/ml. As an antimicrobial agent, the water extract showed an effect at 0.4 mg/well concentration and the methanolic extract showed inhibitory activity at 0.4, 0.04 and 0.004 mg/well concentration. The Ficus fistulosa plant extract possessed antioxidant activity and also antimicrobial activity, where the potency depended on the type of extract. The methanolic extract showed better and wider inhibitory effect.