Simultaneous Determination Of Active Compounds In Piper Betle Linn. Leaf Extract And Effect Of Extracting Solvents On Bioactivity

In the present study, we reported the codetermination of highly bioactive compounds, namely, hydroxychavicol, eugenol, and gallic acid in the Piper betle Linn. leaf extract by high-performance liquid chromatography method. These compounds are of great interest in the pharmaceutical field and also in other food-related applications owing to their impressive biological and pharmaceutical properties. Moreover, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of the extracts produced by different extracting solvents were also investigated in detail. The methanol extract was found to contain the highest amounts of hydroxychavicol and gallic acid thus offering the strongest antioxidant activity in 1,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging assay. All the three compounds were found at low levels in the hexane extract. However, the solvent type did not affect significantly on the concentration of extracted eugenol. The ethanol, methanol, and ethyl acetate extracts exhibited strong inhibitory effects against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella typhimurium whereas the hexane extract showed negligible antibacterial activity. These findings suggest that ethyl acetate is a good choice to produce a highly antibacterial extract but methanol and ethanol are more suitable when the antioxidant activity of the extract is more concerned.