Phenolic Composition of Leaf extracts of Ailanthus altissima (Simaroubaceae) with Antibacterial and Antifungal Activity Equivalent to Standard Antibiotics

Abstract

Extracts of fresh and dry Ailanthus altissima leaves from Croatia were evaluated for their phenolic composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The methanolic extract had a higher concentration of total phenolics, flavonoids and non-flavonoids, as well as a higher antioxidant capacity than water extracts. Flavonoids identified in A. altissima leaves belong to two groups: flavones (glycosides of apigenin and luteolin) and flavonols (glycosides of quercetin and kaempferol). They were mainly present as glycosides, quercetin-3-O-glucoside was the predominant flavonoid. Only traces of aglycones were detected even after extract hydrolysis. Caffeic acid was the predominant phenolic acid both before and after hydrolysis, followed by chlorogenic acid after hydrolysis. The concentration of chlorogenic acid significantly increased soon after tissue fragmentation suggesting this compound is involved in rapid response against mechanical wounding in A. altissima. Therefore, to increase the chlorogenic acid concentration, mechanical wounding could be applied. The acetone leaf extract was as active against Escherichia coli as the positive control gentamicin. Both acetone and methanol:dichloromethane extracts had a higher activity against Candida albicans than a standard drug amphotericin B. Therefore, A. altissima could serve as a valuable resource for antimicrobial activity, which makes this species interesting for further investigation and possible pharmaceutical application.

Antifeeding and Insecticidal Activity of Ailanthus altissima and Morus alba Extracts Against Gipsy Moth (Lymantria dispar (L.), Lepidoptera, Lymantridae) Larvae Under Laboratory Conditions

“…Various factors affect the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in A. altissima extracts: selected tissue or organ (Luis, Gil, Amaral, Domingues & Duarte, 2012;Aissani et al, 2018), growing conditions (Vidović, Morina, Milić & Veljović Jovanović, 2015), extraction solvent (Luis et al, 2012;Poljuha et al, 2017;Aissani et al, 2018), and processing conditions (Poljuha et al, 2017). According to several authors (Luis et al, 2012;Albouchi et al, 2013;Poljuha et al, 2017;Aissani et al, 2018) leaves and bark of A. altissima are rich sources of polyphenolic compounds and possess very strong antioxidant activity. Presented work is in agreement with the results obtained in our study that reveal that the bark extract possessed ten times higher content of total phenolics and total tannins compared to leaf extracts.…”

Phenolic profiling and antibacterial potential of Saudi Arabian native date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars

“…Kaempferol-3-rutinoside is reported as bitter-tasting flavonol glycoside with a wide range of antioxidants, anticancer, and antibacterial potential. [58,59] In addition, Linolenic acid was also present in the extract of Khalas date, a research demonstrated that linoleic acid effectively inhibited Mycobacterium tuberculosis. [60] ).…”

Nematicidal activity of aqueous tinctures of medicinal plants against larvae of the nematodes Strongyloides papillosus and Haemonchus contortus

“…Acetone extract from leaves displayed activity against Escherichia coli. Acetone, methanol and dichloromethane extracts had high activity towards Candida albicans (Poljuha et al, 2017).…”

“…These extracts are efficient against Gram-positive bacteria (Albouchi et al, 2013) and inactive towards Gram-negative bacteria and Candida albicans. They also exhibited high inhibiting effect on germination and growth of rots of wild carrot Daucus carota L. Phenol components of extracts from leaves of A. altissima (methanol and aqueous extracts), their antibacterial and anti-fungal properties were studied by Poljuha et al (2017). Methanol extract contained more phenol, phlavonoid and nonphlavonoid compounds, and also had more notable antioxidant activity than aqueous extracts.…”