Phytochemical and antibacterial analyses of Onychium japonicum (Thunb.) Kunze

Abstract

In clinical practice bacterial resistance against antibiotics has become a serious health problem, thus using alternative approaches such as natural products as the supplementary drug could solve it. Therefore, the current study was conducted to thoroughly investigate the enrichment of phytochemicals and antibacterial potential of O. japonicum. The fronds samples of O. japonicum prepared in different solvents were used against MDR bacterial strains and phytochemical analyses. The analyses of data revealed that O. japonicum was enriched with flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, carotenoids, terpenoids, phlobatanins, phenols, and coumarins while quantitatively this plant has a significantly higher content of phenols(1100.91µM/g) followed by sugar contents (748.67µM/ml), ascorbic acid (426.12mM/g), flavonoids (160.65mg/g), anthocyanin (101.06µM/g) and proline (80.58µM/g). On the other hand, the organic extracts of O. japonicum were highly active against all bacterial strains while hydric extract was inactive against selected bacteria. Specifically, O. japonicum was highly active against S. aureus in all organic extracts (chloroform=16.66±0.33, ethyl acetate=15±0.57, methyl alcohol= 14±0.57, N-hexane=20.33±0.33) followed by K. pneumonia (chloroform=14.33±0.33, ethyl acetate=4.33±4.33, methyl alcohol=3.66±3.66, N-hexane=16.66±0.33) and P. aeruginosa (chloroform= 8.33±4.17, ethyl acetate=8.33±4.17, methyl alcohol=6±3.00, N-hexane=9.33±4.66), while E. coli (chloroform=0±0.00, ethyl acetate=7±3.51, methyl alcohol=3.33±3.33, N-hexane=4±4.00). Based on current findings it is concluded that O. japonicum is enriched in many useful phytochemicals that could be use as a supplement with other traditionally used antibiotics.