Antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of water and methanolic extract of G. glabra native to Pakistan
Muhammad Khalid Saeed, Naseem Zahra, Asma Saeed, Khurram Shahzad, Shaista Nawaz, Syed Hussain Imam Abidi and Quratulain Syed
Abstract
The licorice root extracts have a variety of therapeutic benefits, including treatment of throat infections, tuberculosis, respiratory disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunodeficiency. The current study entails the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of licorice in water and methanolic extracts. The antimicrobial activity was assessed against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sciuri, Pseudomonas, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhi Aerugenosa. This was done by disc diffusion methods and the results revealed that methanolic extract was potentially more effective that exhibited good inhibitory action on E. coli (inhibitory zone 19±0.05 mm) and S. sciuri (inhibitory zone 17±0.04 mm) than water extract against the tested bacterial strains at 0.5 mg/ml concentration. The results of antioxidant activity showed that methanolic extract exhibited potent antioxidant activity (% Inhibition 65.2±2.3) with an IC50 of 192.51±3.30μg/mL in the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay, while water extract exhibiting (% Inhibition 53.6±2.1) with a value of IC50 235.51±4.10 μg/mL at concentration 0.5 mg/ml. This study concludes that the tested licorice extracts have remedial prospective and may be suggested for use as an antibacterial agent and natural antioxidant in the food industry.
