Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. 4 (2026)

Preliminary phytochemical profiling, antibacterial activity and cytotoxic evaluation of Simarouba glauca (DC.) leaves

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.16591
Submitted
6 July 2026
Published
29-09-2026 — Updated on 01-10-2026
Versions

Abstract

Medicinal plants remain a productive source of bioactive molecules for antimicrobial drug discovery. This study compared the phytochemical composition and antibacterial activity of aqueous, methanolic, chloroform and hexane leaf extracts of Simarouba glauca DC. and assessed the cytotoxicity of the methanolic extract towards mammalian cells. Extracts were prepared by Soxhlet extraction and screened qualitatively for the major classes of secondary metabolites. Antibacterial activity was determined against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by the agar well diffusion method. Cytotoxicity of the methanolic extract in L929 mouse fibroblasts was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Alkaloids, carbohydrates and terpenoids were detected in all four extracts, whereas flavonoids, phenolic compounds and tannins were largely confined to the aqueous and methanolic extracts. The aqueous extract produced the largest zone of inhibition, 20.33 ± 0.58 mm against S. aureus. Two-way analysis of variance confirmed a significant effect of extraction solvent on inhibition for every organism tested (p < 0.001), the aqueous extract exceeding the methanolic, chloroform and hexane extracts in all pairwise comparisons; the hexane extract was inactive throughout. Fibroblast viability remained above 70 % at 100 µg/mL of the methanolic extract and the IC50 of 155.1 µg/mL is an extrapolated value, since 50 % inhibition was not reached within the range tested. Under ISO 10993-5 criteria the extract is therefore classified as non-cytotoxic. The combination of measurable antibacterial activity in the polar extracts with low toxicity towards mammalian fibroblasts identifies the aqueous and methanolic leaf extracts of S. glauca as suitable starting material for bioassay-guided fractionation and for the development of plant-derived topical and oral-care antibacterial formulations.

References

  1. 1. Newman DJ, Cragg GM. Natural products as sources of new drugs over the 30 years from 1981 to 2010. J Nat Prod. 2012;75(3):311–35. https://doi.org/10.1021/np200906s
  2. 2. World Health Organization. WHO traditional medicine strategy: 2014–2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2013.
  3. 3. Ventola CL. The antibiotic resistance crisis: Part 1: Causes and threats. P T. 2015;40(4):277–83.
  4. 4. Álvarez-Martínez FJ, Barrajón-Catalán E, Herranz-López M, Micol V. Antibacterial plant compounds, extracts and essential oils: An updated review on their effects and putative mechanisms of action. Phytomedicine. 2021;90:153626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2021.153626
  5. 5. Harborne JB. Phytochemical methods: A guide to modern techniques of plant analysis. 3rd ed. London: Chapman & Hall; 1998.
  6. 6. Cowan MM. Plant products as antimicrobial agents. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1999;12(4):564–82. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.12.4.564
  7. 7. Barry AL. An overview of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and its impact on antimicrobial susceptibility tests. In: Schwalbe R, Steele-Moore L, Goodwin AC, editors. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing protocols. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press; 2007. p. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420014495.ch1
  8. 8. Vaou N, Stavropoulou E, Voidarou C, Tsigalou C, Bezirtzoglou E. Towards advances in medicinal plant antimicrobial activity: A review study on challenges and future perspectives. Microorganisms. 2021;9(10):2041. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9102041
  9. 9. Dai J, Mumper RJ. Plant phenolics: Extraction, analysis and their antioxidant and anticancer properties. Molecules. 2010;15(10):7313–52. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules15107313
  10. 10. Ibrahim N, Kebede A. In vitro antibacterial activities of methanol and aqueous leaf extracts of selected medicinal plants against human pathogenic bacteria. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2020;27(9):2261–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2019.08.008
  11. 11. Kumar A, Ilavarasan R, Jayachandran T Phytochemical investigation and antimicrobial activity of Simarouba glauca. Int J Pharm Sci Rev Res. 2012;13(1):99–102.
  12. 12. Kumari M, Jain S, Bhattacharya S. Phytochemical analysis and antimicrobial properties of Simarouba glauca leaf extracts. Int J Pharm Sci Res. 2019;10(4):1850–6.
  13. 13. Ramasamy SP, Rajendran A, Pallikondaperumal M, Sundararajan P, Husain FM, Khan A, et al. Broad-spectrum antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer studies of leaf extract of Simarouba glauca DC in vitro. Antibiotics (Basel). 2022;11(1):59. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11010059
  14. 14. Alshehri OM, Muddapur UM, Manjunath S, Jalal MM, Altayar MA, Mahnashi MH, et al. Cytotoxic, antibacterial, antioxidant, anthelmintic and anticoagulant potential of phytochemicals from Simarouba glauca leaf extract. Sci Adv Mater. 2024;16(1):76–84. https://doi.org/10.1166/sam.2024.4619
  15. 15. Atanasov AG, Waltenberger B, Pferschy-Wenzig EM, Linder T, Wawrosch C, Uhrin P, et al. Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review. Biotechnol Adv. 2015;33(8):1582–614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.08.001
  16. 16. Mosmann T. Rapid colorimetric assay for cellular growth and survival: Application to proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. J Immunol Methods. 1983;65(1–2):55–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1759(83)90303-4
  17. 17. Evans WC. Trease and Evans' pharmacognosy. 16th ed. Edinburgh: Elsevier; 2009.
  18. 18. Kokate CK, Purohit AP, Gokhale SB. Pharmacognosy. 56th ed. Pune: Nirali Prakashan; 2021.
  19. 19. Frederick N, Mani J. Phytochemical screening and in vitro antioxidant activity of different solvent extracts of Musa rasthali fruit. Int J Chem Sci. 2016;5(3):54–70.
  20. 20. Adam OA, Abadi RS, Ayoub SM. The effect of extraction method and solvents on yield and antioxidant activity of certain Sudanese medicinal plant extracts. J Phytopharmacol. 2019;8(5):248–52. https://doi.org/10.31254/phyto.2019.8507
  21. 21. Sardhara RA, Gopal S. Qualitative phytochemical screening of different solvent extracts of Tinospora cordifolia stem and Lantana camara flower. Int Res J Pharm Appl Sci. 2013;3(5):210–13.
  22. 22. Balouiri M, Sadiki M, Ibnsouda SK. Methods for in vitro evaluating antimicrobial activity: A review. J Pharm Anal. 2016;6(2):71–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpha.2015.11.005
  23. 23. Sanikop S, Bhat K, Kotrashetti V, Kumbar V, Ammanagi R, Patil MR. Anticancer and antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract of clove (Syzygium aromaticum) on oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (KB cell lines): An in vitro study. Int J Ayurvedic Med. 2021;12(3):674–83. https://doi.org/10.47552/ijam.v12i3.1931
  24. 24. International Organization for Standardization. ISO 10993-5:2009. Biological evaluation of medical devices–Part 5: Tests for in vitro cytotoxicity. Geneva: ISO; 2009.
  25. 25. Cushnie TPT, Lamb AJ. Antimicrobial activity of flavonoids. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2005;26(5):343–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2005.09.002
  26. 26. Nair R, Chanda S. Antibacterial activities of some medicinal plants of the western region of India. Turk J Biol. 2007;31(4):231–6.
  27. 27. Srinivasan D, Nathan S, Suresh T, Perumalsamy PL. Antimicrobial activity of certain Indian medicinal plants used in folkloric medicine. J Ethnopharmacol. 2001;74(3):217–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-8741(00)00345-7
  28. 28. Riss TL, Moravec RA, Niles AL, Duellman S, Benink HA, Worzella TJ, et al. Cell viability assays. In: Markossian S, Grossman A, Arkin M, editors. Assay guidance manual. Bethesda (MD): Eli Lilly & Company and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; 2016.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.