Bactericidal, fungicidal, helminthicidal, antioxidant, and chemical properties of chrozophora obliqua extract

Plants have been used by human being in the treatment and prophylaxis of various diseases since thousands of years ago. Chrozophora obliqua is an aromatic plant that possesses beneficial health properties in traditional medicine. However, other properties of Chrozophora obliqua such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and helminthicidal properties have never been investigated earlier; therefore, the current study aimed to investigate these effects. The chemical composition of the crude extract isolated from Chrozophora obliqua by hydrodistillation was estimated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry apparatus (GC-MS). The antiradical property was evaluated using DPPH method. While bactericidal and fungicidal activities were assessed against eight bacterial and fungal American Type Culture Collection and clinically isolated pathogens using minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. Moreover, the helminthicidal activity was determined against Pheretima posthuma worms of freshly isolated extract after 1 h, 6 h, and 24 h of extraction. The current study revealed that Chrozophora obliqua extract composed of 16 compounds and possessed potential antiradical activity with an average IC₅₀ value of 4.4 μg/ml almost at all time points. MIC values of the extract against Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, Shigella sonnei, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, and Epidermophyton floccosum were approximately 1.5, 6.25, 12.5, 3.25,.015, 12.5, 6.25, and 1.125 mg/ml almost at all investigated time points. Also, it is found that 4, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 100 mg/ml of the extract needed 27.7, 13.5, 9.1, 7.8, and 4.4 min, respectively, to paralyze the investigated worm and needed 77.1, 37.7, 19.3, 13, and 9.9 min, respectively, to cause death to the studied worms. Our study provides evidence for the first time that Chrozophora obliqua extract possesses antiradical, bactericidal, fungicidal, and helminthicidal effects. These findings suggest that Chrozophora obliqua is a good choice for further pharmacological and clinical studies.