Comparative antioxidant and antimicrobial studies of cold and hot bark hydromethanolic extract of Couroupita guianensis Aubl

Abstract

Couroupita guianensis, known by its common name as cannon ball tree, belongs to Lecythidaceae family, native of south and central America, India and Sri lanka. It’s been in use in traditional medicine and worshipped as sacred tree in india. With the importance of tree in various medicinal aspects as per the reports the present investigation was carried to access the phytochemical components, free radical scavenging and antimicrobial activity of cold and hot hydromethanolic extracts from the barks of medicinally important Couroupita guanensis. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of total antioxidants, flavonoids, phenols and phytosterols in both cold and hot extracts. Quantitative estimations of the phytochemicals revealed the presence of high contents of total antioxidant activity (598.4 µg/ml), phenol content activity of (417.52 µg/ml) and phytosterols of (133.92 µg/ml) in cold hydromethanolic extracts compared to the hot hydromethanolic extract. The presence of high flavonoid content (417.52 µg/ml) was recorded in hot extract compared to the cold extract. Hot extract gave more scavenging activity with IC50 value (33.5 µg/ml). ABTS radical scavenging activity was found to be more in cold extract with IC50 values (24. µg/ml). Antimicrobial assay showed activity with B. cereus (13.00±0.00mm) and S.aureus (15.00±0.00mm) bacteria showed maximum zone of inhibition compared to the hot extract whereas C. albicans (13.00±O.00mm) showing maximum zone of inhibition compared to the cold extract and was not sensitive to any other fungal forms tested. This investigation pays way to consider Couroupita guianensis, with highly potential antioxidant and antimicrobial components, be used in pharmaceutical companies for the development of phytomedicine for the therapy and treatments.