In Vitro Assessment of the Phytochemical Composition and Antibacterial Activity of Pisonia alba Leaf Extracts

Abstract

Vinitha Balamurugan, Lavanya Ramachandran and Selvakumar Gothandapani

Pisonia alba is a medicinally important plant that has been widely used in traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda and Siddha, for the treatment of various ailments. The present study was undertaken to investigate the phytochemical composition, antioxidant potential, and antibacterial activity of acetone, chloroform, and ethanolic leaf extracts of Pisonia alba. Preliminary phytochemical screening was carried out using standard qualitative methods to identify the major classes of secondary metabolites, while structural characterization of the isolated phytoconstituents was performed using proton (1H) and carbon-13 (13C) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The antibacterial activity of the extracts was evaluated by the agar well diffusion method against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis, using amoxicillin as the positive control. Phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins, terpenoids, saponins, and coumarins in the leaf extracts. The extracts also exhibited appreciable antioxidant activity. Among the tested solvents, the acetone extract showed the highest antibacterial activity, producing zones of inhibition of 30.8 ± 1.1 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 30.1 ± 0.8 mm against Bacillus subtilis at a concentration of 40 μL, whereas the ethanolic extract exhibited moderate activity and the chloroform extract showed comparatively lower antibacterial efficacy. These findings support the traditional medicinal use of Pisonia alba and suggest that its leaves are a promising source of bioactive phytochemicals with potential antioxidant and antibacterial applications.

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