Antioxidant and antimicrobial analyses of Ficus palmata and Calotropis procera extracts and their phytochemical screening

Ficus palmata Forssk (Moraceae) and Calotropis procera (Aiton) Dryand (Asclepidaceae) are medicinally important plants. Traditionally, Ficus palmata Forssk is well known to cure gastric and diabetic problems. Both plants are found useful in the treatment of cancerous complications and skin eruptions. The present study was aimed to assess bioactivities of selected plants. Cytotoxicity (brine shrimp lethality assay), antioxidant (ABTS, DPPH, phosphomolybdate and reducing power assay), antimicrobial (disc diffusion method) and phytochemical screening was performed to analyze their activities. Crude extract of leaves and fruit of both plants was prepared in two polar solvents, i.e. methanol and chloroform. Significant cytotoxic potential was shown by fruit of both plants with LD₅₀ values of 80.34 and 93.83 µg/mL by Calotropis procera (Aiton) Dryand methanolic extract and F. palmata chloroform extract, respectively. Methanol extracts of leaves of both plants revealed significant antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal activity. F. palmata leaves methanol extract showed strong antioxidant activity among the tested samples and the LC₅₀ values were 10.39, 14.63 and 19.28 µg/mL in phosphomolybdate, ABTS and DPPH assays, respectively. Promising microbial growth inhibition was observed at 25 µg/mL. The observed bioactivities are consistent with the presence of valuable phytochemicals: alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, glycosides and saponins. Due to the strong antibacterial, cytotoxic and antioxidant potential endowed by selected plant extracts, these are supposed to be potential candidates for biopharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Further work explicating the structural details and isolation of phytochemicals from selected plant species would be recommended.