Phytochemical Screening, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of Euphorbia hirta Crude Extract

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the crude extract of Euphorbia hirta. The antibacterial activity was tested against Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using different solvent extracts of Euphorbia hirta with disc diffusion method and the DPPH scavenging activity was performed to analyze the free radical scavenging efficacy of the extracts. GC-MS analysis was performed to identify the biologically active compounds in ethyl acetate extract. The result reveals the antibacterial efficacy of the ethyl acetate mediated crude extract of Euphorbia hirta against all the tested organisms. The free radical scavenging activity of the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were recorded with the IC50 value of 47.8 µg/ml and 63.7 µg/ml, respectively, compared with aqueous extract with IC50 value of 181.86 µg/ml. GC-MS analysis of ethyl acetate revealed the presence of potential antibacterial and antioxidant components suggesting the isolation and evaluation of the specific agent which can be exploited as a potential antimicrobial drug and antioxidant agent.