Phytochemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities of Crude Extracts from the Species Euphorbia Atlantica Coss.

Abstract

A phytochemical study of crude extracts obtained from Euphorbia atlantica Coss. led to the isolation and structure identification of ten known compounds by spectroscopic analysis including 1D and 2D NMR techniques (¹H, ¹³C, DEPT, COSY, HSQC, HMBC and NOESY), mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), measurements of optical rotation [α]_D, and by comparison with the literature data. The total phenolic content was estimated and the antioxidant activities of the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extracts were evaluated using seven different methods, namely scavenging of the free radicals (ABTS and DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total antioxidant capacity by phosphomolybdate assay (PPM), cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), and metal chelate and ferrous ion chelating activities. The antibacterial activity of extracts was estimated by the agar disk diffusion assay against four bacterial strains including Staphylococcus albus, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 35218 and Enterobacter sp.