Phytochemical, antibacterial, antioxidant and phytotoxicity screening of the extracts collected from the fruit and root of wild MT. Atlas mastic tree (Pistacia Atlantic a Subsp. Kurdica)

Abstract

The goals of this research were to analyze the phytochemical, antioxidant, antibacterial, and allelopathic activities of extracts collected from P. atlantica subsp. Kurdica fruit and root. The fruit extract showed the highest phenolic (5.20 mg GAE/g dry extract) and flavonoid contents (1.01 mg QR/g dry extract). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the diverse, biologically active elements from crude extracts displayed different compounds with varying molecular weights using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Likewise, both extracts possess unique phytochemical constituents. Additionally, the fruit extract has strong antioxidant and antibacterial properties compared to the root extract. The results of the allelopathic assay revealed strong and significant effects of both extracts on germination, seedling growth and root length for the test crops and weeds. According to the bioactivity analysis, the result of the variable importance in the projection (VIP) revealed that fruit extracts possessed a stronger biological activity than root extracts. The principal component analysis (PCA) plot detected a relationship between different constituents and biological activeness of both extracts and divided them into four clades. The results of this study showed that P. atlantica subsp. Kurdica may serve as a powerful natural antioxidant, antibacterial and herbicide source.