Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of Soymida febrifuga leaf extracts

The present study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of hexane (LH), methanol (LM) and aqueous (LA) extracts of Soymida febrifuga (Maliaceae) leaves, which is a traditional folk medicine in India. No pharmacological evaluation of this plant (except antiplasmodial activity) has been reported to date. Antioxidant activity of different extracts was evaluated by DPPH free radical scavenging activity, taking total phenolic content (TPC) as an index. Antimicrobial activity was tested against six bacterial and five fungal strains using the agar hole diffusion method and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) were determined for all the test organisms against the extracts. The results showed that the methanol and aqueous extracts of leaf had a higher antioxidant activity and total phenolic content than the hexane extract. The antioxidant activity and TPC of the extracts were highly correlated. Extracts also showed several degrees of antimicrobial activity against different microbes. The methanol extract was more potent against Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida tropicana. The lowest MIC values obtained for LM, LA and LH were 78, 156, 625 microg/mL against A. fumigatus, C. tropicana and C. albicans, respectively. Hence, this study confirms that Soymida febrifuga leaves possess potent antioxidant and antimicrobial activity.