Yihenew Simegniew Birhan, Ayenew Getachew Binalf, Biniyam Zewdie Hiruy, Fasih Bintang Ilhami
Traditional medicines of plant origin have attracted significant attention due to the presence of bioactive secondary metabolites capable of reliving different ailments in human and livestock populations. This study focused on the phytochemical investigation, antioxidant, and antibacterial evaluation of Rhus retinorrhoea Steud. Ex A. Rich crude extracts prepared by successive maceration of leaf powder. The qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, saponins, and tannins in the leaf crude extracts. The methanol crude extract had the highest TPC (368.85 ± 0.234 mgGAE/g) and TFC (527.45 ± 0.217 mgQE/g) as compared to the acetone and petroleum ether crude extracts. Moreover, in the DPPH and FRAP assays, the methanol crude extract exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 19.26 ppm and EC50 = 104.67 ppm), followed by acetone (IC50 = 117.24 ppm and EC50 = 205.57 ppm) and petroleum ether (IC50 = 194.85 ppm and EC50 = 256.18 ppm) crude extracts at 400 ppm. Strong correlations between the TPC/TFC of crude extracts and antioxidant activities were witnessed. All the crude extracts elicited conspicuous antibacterial activities against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) bacteria strains with mean zone of inhibition (MZI) ranging from 10.7 ± 0.342 to17.8 ± 0.302 mm at a maximum dose of 400 ppm. Overall, the preliminary findings suggested the intriguing correlation between folkloric healing practices and the antioxidant/antibacterial activities of R. retinorrhoea. © 2025 The Author(s)
Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Debre Markos University, P.O. Box 269, Debre Markos, Ethiopia; Department of Chemistry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan; Department of Natural Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia
