A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIBACTERIAL, CYTOTOXIC AND PHYTOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF AVERRHOA CARAMBOLA

Abstract

Experiment was conducted on petroleum ether extract of a bark part of Averrhoa carambola in order to find out various phytochemicals in this plant and to evaluate this plant’s cytotoxicity, ability to impede bacterial growth and ability to work against harmful molecules like free radicals with the help of antioxidants that are present in it. To make sure that the findings are accurate, a number of samples of this plant were collected from different places of Bangladesh. Existence of flavonoid, carbohydrate, glycoside and steroid in the petroleum extract of Averrhoa carambola was confirmed by conducting a phytochemical screening. The disc diffusion method, where ten pathogenic bacteria were used, confirmed that the extract is capable of showing good action against pathogenic organisms. But among these ten bacteria, the extract’s zone of inhibitions were comparatively larger in cases of Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Bacillus megaterium, which clearly indicates that the extract is able to exhibit remarkable antibacterial action against these bacteria. The cytotoxic action of the extract was measured by using the Brine Shrimp Lethality Bio-assay method. Using this method, the value of LC50 was calculated as 19.95. The extract’s phenolic content was estimated as 62.504 mg/g GAE, and the amount of flavonoid in it was 24.107 mg/g of quercetin equivalent. A slight increase in the DPPH radical scavenging activity of Averrhoa carambola was observed when the concentration of the extract was enhanced. In comparison to the IC50 value of 11.20μg/mL of ascorbic acid, which was considered as a reference in the test, the IC50 value of the plant extract was estimated as 125.429μg/mL.