Antioxidant, Antimicrobial Activity and Phytochemical Screening of Syzygium cumini L. Leaves in Tropical Region from Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Background and Objective: Syzygium cumini is a plant of the Myrtaceae family. This plant has multifunctionality, due to its utilization as medicine, food, dye and building. This study aimed to determine the activities of antioxidant, antimicrobial, bioactive compounds and secondary metabolites contained in S. cumini leaves. Materials and Methods: The powder of S. cumini leaves was extracted with n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol as solvents. Three extracts were analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and phytochemical screening to determine the type of bioactive compound and secondary metabolite. Antioxidant activity was tested with the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and the antimicrobial test by diffusion method. Results: The results showed that n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of S. cumini contained 69, 57 and 64 bioactive compounds. Phytochemical screening displayed flavonoids, terpenoids and steroids from n-hexane extracts. Ethyl acetate extracts showed only flavonoid and methanol extracts contained flavonoid and saponin. N-hexane extracts of S. cumini had very strong antioxidant activity content with 23.79% of IC50 when compared with the other two extracts. Conclusion: The results of the diffusion test exhibited three types of extracts that could inhibit the microbial pathogen such as Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Candida albicans ATCC 10231.