Study on Biological and Phytochemical Properties of Euphorbia hirta

Abstract

Euphorbia hirta is an annual broad-leaved herb and widely used as traditional medicine to treat various ailments. In this study, the antimicrobial activity of the E. hirta extracts (whole plants, flowers, stems, leaves, and roots) was evaluated via agarwell diffusion and microdilution tests. Generally, the plant extracts exhibited the antimicrobial activity towards ten selected Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, namely B. cereus, B. subtilis, E. faecalis, S. aureus, S. epidermidis, K. pneumoniae, S. typhimurium, S. dysentriae, S. sonnei and S. marcescens. Since E. hirta extracts showed the highest antimicrobial activity against S. epidermidis (Gram positive) and S. sonnei (Gram negative), further study on the combination effects and pharmacodynamic properties were carried out. The two different parts of plants combinations, which are flowers-stems, flowers-leaves, flowers-roots, stems-leaves, stems-roots and leaves-roots, each was used to treat the two selected bacterial strains. Synergism effect could be bserved only for the combination treatments towards S.epidermidis with the highest synergism effect (89%) showed by flowers-leaves and stems-leaves combination. The E. hirta extracts also exhibited the bactericidal activity in time-kill study with a significant of post-antibiotic effects (PAE) value towards those two strains of bacteria. In preliminary screening, each fresh parts of E. hirta (flowers, stems, leaves and roots) showed a potential anti-quorum sensing (anti-QS) activity. Further screening on E. hirta extracts via agar-well diffusion test also exhibited the wide variation of anti-QS activity. The highest anti-QS activity was recorded for leaves and flowers extracts with the lowest of minimum QS inhibition concentration value. Phytochemical screening of E. hirta extracts by standard chemical test revealed the presence of carbohydrates, lipids, protein, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, resins, steroids, acidic compounds, tannins, glycosides, phenols and terpenoids. The quantitative phytochemical assays via GC-MS indicated that the E. hirra rich with fatty acids and terpenoids compounds.