Chemical characterization of extracts from various parts of Salvia hispanica L. and their antibacterial activity

Abstract

Plants have been an important source of phytomedicines for thousands of years. Salvia hispanica L. distributed in Central and Southern Mexico and Guatemala has potential medicinal properties. The current research focused on the chemical characterization of the plant extracts from leaf, seed, and flower parts using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC MS) analysis and evaluating its antibacterial effects. Results of antibacterial tests proved that the crude extracts could be potentially utilized in controlling some bacterial strains. The highest zone of inhibition (14.6 mm) was observed against the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens at 50 µg/100 μL ethyl acetate flower extract. GC-MS analysis confirmed the occurrence of 49 and 34 different compounds in the ethyl acetate flower and leaf extract respectively. Many of them are used in industry for various applications like flavour and fragrance agent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitumor etc. These plant extracts which proved to be potentially effective can be used as natural alternative preventives to control food poisoning diseases and preserve foodstuff avoiding health hazards of chemical antimicrobial agent applications.