Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities of Aqueous, Methanolic and Alkaloid Extracts from Mitragyna Speciosa (Rubiaceae Family) Leaves.docVIP

Molecules 2009, 14, 3964-3974; doi:10.3390/moleculeOPEN ACCESS molecules ISSN 1420-3049 /journal/molecules Article Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities of Aqueous, Methanolic and Alkaloid Extracts from Mitragyna Speciosa (Rubiaceae Family) Leaves Suhanya Parthasarathy 1, Juzaili Bin Azizi 1, Surash Ramanathan 1, Sabariah Ismail 1, Sreenivasan Sasidharan 2,*, Mohd Ikram Mohd. Said 3 and Sharif Mahsufi Mansor 1 1 Centre for Drug Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia 2 Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Pulau Penang, Malaysia 3 School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: srisasidharan@. Received: 23 July 2009; in revised form: 21 August 2009 / Accepted: 15 September 2009 / Published: 9 October 2009 Abstract: Studies on the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Mitragyna speciosa leaf extracts are lacking. In this study the antioxidant properties of water, methanolic and alkaloid M. speciosa leaf extracts were evaluated using the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging method. The amount of total phenolics and flavanoid contents were also estimated. The DPPH IC50 values of the aqueous, alkaloid and methanolic extracts were 213.4, 104.81 and 37.08 μg/mL, respectively. The total phenolic content of the aqueous, alkaloid and methanolic extracts were 66.0 mg, 88.4, 105.6 mg GAE/g, respectively, while the total flavanoid were 28.2, 20.0 and 91.1 mg CAE/g respectively. The antioxidant activities were correlated with the total phenolic content. This result suggests that the relatively high antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract compared to aqueous and alkaloid extract could be possibly be due to its high phenolic co