Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Mandragora autumnalis Bertol extracts

Background: Mandragora was one of the most important medicinal plants and a herb of great cultural value. The plant is still widely used in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine, TAPHM, for the treatment of many and varied ailments, including pain, insomnia, eye diseases, inflammation, and ulcers. Objectives : Evaluate the antioxidant activity of different parts of Mandragora autumnalis using DPPH, β –carotene linoleic acid assays, and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity assays . Evaluate the antimicrobial activity of all parts of M.autumnalis, using a modified poisoned food technique for dermatophytes and disc diffusion method for bacterial strains. Methods: The antioxidant activity of M. autumnalis was determined using different methods, including: the DPPH Assay, β-Carotene-Linoleic acid assay, and Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, while the antimicrobial activity was determined by using the disc diffusion and modified poisoned food techniques. The GC-MS spectrophotometer was used for the identification of active constituents from all parts of mandragora. Results: From our results it was shown that roots and leaves of mandragora have antioxidant activity using the DPPH Assay, While non of the extracts have shown antioxidant activity using the β-Carotene-Linoleic acid assay, while all parts of mandragora have antioxidant activity using the Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity. The Antimicrobial activity of different plant parts were investigated in this study. From our study, it was shown that only the ethanolic extracts of mandragora roots have antibacterial activity against the 6 bacterial strains. On the other hand, non of the extracts have shown antifungal activity. Studying the chemical composition of the components of the plant using GC-MS test results have shown that different plant parts contains about 219 chemicals. Comparison between the chemical content of the various parts of the plant, it was found that coumarins material to be present in all parts of this plant, while anthraquinones and tannins were found in all plant parts with the exception of roots, and that glycosides was found only in ripe fruits.