A Phytochemical Investigation and Evaluation of the Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities of the Stem Bark Extract of Clematis Simensis (yeazo Hareg)

Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of various diseases and still play an important role in covering the basic health needs in the developing countries like Ethiopia. In this study, successive extraction, partial purification using column chromatograpy, phytochemical screening, determination of the total phenolic and flavonoid content, and the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the petroleum ether, chloroform, and ethanol stem bark extracts and fractions of Clematis simensis are reported. The results show the presence of different valuable phytochemicals. The total phenolic content is 54.744, 68.933, and 87.522 mg g–1 of gallic acid equivalent for the petroleum ether, chloroform, and ethanol extracts, respectively. The total flavonoid content of the petroleum ether, chloroform, and ethanol extracts are 22.770, 37.223, and 52.289 mgCE g–1, respectively. This could lead to potential biological activity of the plant extract. Besides, the ethanol extract exhibits higher antioxidant activity than all the tested extracts. Likewise, the extracts have promising antibacterial activity with that of the ethanol extract being higher than those of the chloroform and petroleum extracts as well as isolated fractions.