Phytochemical Analysis and Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activity of Different Solvent Extracts of Nees Stem Barks.

Plants have long been considered as a basis of medicines for different indigenous cultures around the globe. They continue as a prominent source of important phytoconstituents which exhibit significant biological activities. In this study, we performed the phytochemical screening, estimation of total phenolic and flavonoids, antioxidants, and antimicrobial activities of the stem bark of Nees using different solvents. The total phenolic and total flavonoid contents ranged from 106.73 ± 1.62 mg GAE/g and 99.32 ± 0.66 mg QE/g (methanol extract) to 65.59 ± 1.79 mg GAE/g and 29.98 ± 0.90 mg QE/g (n-hexane extract), respectively. The maximum 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC) of 39.86 ± 3.69 g/mL was observed for methanol extract followed by aqueous (IC = 43.55 ± 6.16 g/mL), ethyl acetate (IC = 44.30 ± 5.88 g/mL), dichloromethane (IC = 71.50 ± 4.70 g/mL), and the lowest activity was observed for n-hexane extract. The disc diffusion method revealed that the ethyl acetate extract exhibited relatively higher activity against (ZOI = 13 mm), and moderate activities against , and (ZOI = 12 mm). The methanol and aqueous extracts showed nearly parallel and the n-hexane and dichloromethane extracts exhibited mild antibacterial activities. The results indicated that the polarity index of the extracting solvents amplified the biological activities of the extract. The study is helpful to support the validity of the traditional application of the plant as natural medicine.