Verbesina sphaerocephala A. Gray, like other wild plants of the genus Verbesina, has been used in herbal medicine. There is information for other species of the genus related to their phenolic content, antioxidant capacity, and isolation of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity. However, there are no reports for V. sphaerocephala, although it has an important presence in the state of Michoacán, México. In this study, the phenolic composition, quantification of rutin, and in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial activities of methanolic extracts from V. sphaerocephala leaves and flowers were determined. The results showed that all the investigated extracts have high phenolic and flavonoid contents. The flavonoid rutin was identified in all the extracts from V. sphaerocephala by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). The V. sphaerocephala extracts showed scavenging activity against DPPH• and ABTS•+ radicals (IC50 and 5.83 ± 0.50 and 0.93 ± 0.01 mg/mL, respectively) as well as relevant antioxidant capacity (51.05 ± 0.36 mg of ascorbic acid/g of dry tissue). The experimental results show that V. sphaerocephala extracts possessed a strong antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. This research indicates that V. sphaerocephala could be considered as a potential source of natural compounds from the point of ethnopharmacological usage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.