Antimicrobial and Phytochemical Screening of the Methanolic Stem Bark Extract of Ficus abutilifolia (Miq.) and Some Spectral Studies on One Isolated Component

Abstract

The stem bark extract of Ficus abutilifolia (Miq.), an ethnomedicinally important member of the Moraceae family, was analysed with the three-fold aim of identifying its phytochemical components, determining its antimicrobial effects and efficacy, and isolating a component to be structurally elucidated by Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹HNMR) studies. Extraction was carried out by maceration method with methanol as the extraction solvent. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of the resulting methanolic extract gave positive results for carbohydrates, cardiac glycosides, saponins, steroid, triterpenes and alkaloids, while the antimicrobial screening revealed bioactivity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The extract was found to be bacteriostatic (growth-inhibitory) to S. aureus, E. coli and P. aeruginosa with respective Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values of 25-, 50- and 25 mg/ml, but was bactericidal (lethal) only to S. aureus and P. aeruginosa with a common Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) value of 50 mg/ml. Column separation led to the successful isolation of a white crystalline substance with R_f value of 0.25 using solvent ratio 1:4 of EtOAc:n-hexane solvent system. Studies on the FTIR and ¹HNMR spectra of the isolated compound revealed that it is a non-aromatic, non-conjugated six-membered lactone.

Keywords: Ficus abutilifolia, antimicrobial screening, phytochemical, structural elucidation, isolation, stem bark, chromatography

DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/10-6-05

Publication date:March 31^st 2020