Elucidating Therapeutic and Biological Potential of Ahrendt Bark, Leaf, and Root Extracts.

Ahrendt is a medicinal plant known to have potential for the treatment of various diseases. In the present study, the ethanolic extracts of the bark, leaves, and roots of plant were evaluated for antimicrobial, anti-leishmanial, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were determined by agar mix and agar well diffusion method. All extracts showed potential activity against the target bacteria (, , , , , , , and ) and fungal strains (, , and ). proved to be the most sensitive strain for each extract, with a maximum zone of inhibition for bark at 23 ± 0.12 mm, for leaves at 22 ± 0.36 mm, and for root extracts at 20.21 ± 0.06 mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration values of bark, leaves, and roots for different target bacterial strains ranged from 1.56 to 25 mg ml, and the minimum bactericidal concentrations were in the range of 3.12 to 25 mg ml, respectively. The root extract possessed potent antifungal activity against with 83% of growth inhibition, with 80%, and with 73%. The bark extract was found active against with 86% of inhibition, followed by 70% against and 60% against The leaf extract showed a significant response by 83% inhibition against , followed by and with 73 and 72% inhibition, respectively. In an anti-leishmanial bioassay, the inhibitory concentration (IC) was observed for each extract against . The bark showed good activity (IC = 4.95 ± 0.36 mg/ml), followed by the roots (IC = 7.07 ± 0.18 mg/ml) and the leaves (IC = 8.25 ± 0.29 mg/ml). An evaluation of anticancer activity was done by using MTT cell assay against HeLa cell line. Upon comparing the values of each extract to the standard, it was revealed that the ethanolic bark extract showed the highest anticancer activity with IC = (12 ± 0.15 μg/ml), followed by the roots (14 ± 0.15 μg/ml) and the leaves (17 ± 0.21 μg/ml), respectively. The anti-inflammatory assay was undertaken by the inhibition of albumin denaturation activity, proteinase inhibitory activity, and heat-induced hemolysis activity. The IC value for protein denaturation of the bark was IC = 0.64 ± 0.25 mg/ml, followed by the roots (0.67 ± 0.21 mg/ml) and the leaves (0.73 ± 0.13 mg/ml). The proteinase inhibitory activity of the bark extract was IC = 0.55 ± 0.12 mg/ml, followed by the leaves (0.62 ± 0.23 mg/ml) and the roots (0.69 ± 0.15 mg/ml), respectively. For heat-induced hemolysis assay, the bark showed the lowest IC value (0.48 ± 0.15 mg/ml) compared to the leaves (0.52 ± 0.35 mg/ml) and the roots (0.58 ± 0.05 mg/ml) of the plant. All analyzed parts of the plant showed significant biological activities which make the plant medicinally important and a good candidate for the isolation of antimicrobial, inflammatory, and anticancer compounds. Further studies may lead us to determine the active compounds responsible for the biological activities of the plant extracts.