EVALUATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL, ANTHELMINTIC AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF HOPEA PONGA (DENNST.) BARK

The present work involves the extraction of phytochemicals from the bark of the medicinal plant Hopea ponga, with various solvents and evaluation of their antimicrobial, anthelmintic and antioxidant activities by following standard methods. The antioxidant capacity of the plant extracts was measured by their ability to scavenge free radicals such as (a) DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), (b) ABTS (2,2’-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzenothiaziline-6-sulfonate), (c) FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) (d) Hydrogen peroxide assay. The methanol extract exhibited, high antiradical activity against DPPH, ABTS with an IC₅₀ value of 19.48 µg/ml, 25.22 µg/ml, respectively, higher content of phenols (195.11 ± 2.14 mg expressed as mg of Catechol equivalents/100 mg dried extract and highest anthelmintic activity among all tested extracts. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited high antiradical activity against hydrogen peroxide with an IC₅₀ value of 38.00 µg/ml and exhibited significant activity against Streptococcus aureus with a maximum inhibition zone of 35.93 ± 0.12 mm for 1000 mg/ml. The present study suggests that the methanol extract may contain active compounds, which have effective antimicrobial, anthelmintic and antioxidant activity.