A study of antibacterial, antioxidant and neuroprotective effect of stem of Syzygium cumini

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity, and neuroprotective ability of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the stem of Syzygium cumini. Materials and Methods: Antibacterial activity of the aqueous and alcoholic extracts of stem of S. cumini was observed against two Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Staphylococcus aureus) and two Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) by agar well diffusion method. Phytochemical screening was done to reveal the presence of flavonoids in its aqueous, ethanolic, and methanolic extracts of stem of S. cumini. Antioxidant activity was estimated by its enzymatic and non-enzymatic biochemical assay such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione content, glutathione S-transferase, and malondialdehyde content in the aqueous and methanolic extract. Neuroprotective ability of aqueous and ethanolic extract of stem of S. cumini were observed on Rat pheochromocytoma (PC)-12 cell line, by giving neurotoxic shock to Rat PC-12 cells using 6-hydroxydopamine, Statistical Analysis Used: To estimate the accuracy of the experimental data, each experiment was performed in triplicates, and the result was expressed as mean ± standard deviation of three replications. P < 0.05 was regarded as significant. Results: Antibacterial activity of the aqueous and alcoholic extracts of stem of S. cumini was observed where alcoholic extract showed maximum antibacterial activity against B. amyloliquefaciens and S. aureus. Methanolic extract showed higher level of antioxidant activity as comparative to aqueous extract. Ethanolic extract has shown maximum number of viable cells, i.e., 75% and aqueous extract showed 50% of it. Conclusions: This study suggests that stem can be utilized as a good source of antibacterial, antioxidant, and neuroprotective agent.