Composition and biological activities of Prunus mahaleb L. (Rosaceae) Leaf extract; antibiofilm effect on clinical strains

Abstract

Abstract In this work, leaves of Prunus mahaleb L. plant were extracted using methanol solvent. The chemical constituents of the n-hexane fraction of the methanol extract were identified by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The amount of phenolic and flavonoid compounds of the extract was measured. The antioxidant and anticancer activities were investigated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) and brine shrimp method, respectively. Then the ability of biofilm inhibition of the extract was evaluated. The results showed that octadecenoic acid (26.13%) and 14-methyl-8-hexadecyn-1-ol (18.54%) were the main constituents of the extract. The extract also contains significant amounts of phenolic and flavonoid compounds (100.31 ± 0.004 and 42.07 ± 0.014 µg/mg, respectively). DPPH test showed that the extract had high antioxidant activity (IC50 = 53.09 ± 0.13 µg/ml), but the brine shrimp test showed that the extract had no anticancer effect. The evolution of biofilm inhibition showed that the extract had good inhibitory effect on multidrug resistance E. coli strains. This study was performed for the first time on the leaf extract of P. mahaleb L. plant (collected from the Marivan, Iran) which showed that the leaves of the plant have significant amounts of phenolic and flavonoid compounds and have good anti-biofilm and antioxidant properties.