ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACIVITIES OF $OCIMUM~BASILICUM~VAR.~PURPUREUM$ ETHANOL EXTRACT

Abstract

Many species of Ocimum genus have a long history in folk medicine and food industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of ethanol extract of leaves of Ocimum basilicum var. purpureum cultivated in Armenian (Ararat province, village Dvin, 1000–1200 m a.s.l.). Antimicrobial activity of O. basilicum leaves' extract was determined by agar disk-diffusion method. Different Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis WT-A, Staphylococcus aureus MDC 5233, Enterococcus hirae ATCC 9790) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Salmonella typhimurium MDC1754, ampicillin resistant E. coli dhpα-pUC18 and kanamycin resistant E. coli pARG25) bacteria and yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 9804 and S. cerevisiae ATCC 13007) were used as test-microorganisms. 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was applied to measure the radical scavenging capacity of O. basilicum ethanol extract. The total flavonoid content in O. basilicum extract was determined employing AlCl₃ colorimetric assay, and the value was 46.9±0.884 μg QE mg^–1. Total phenolic content of studied extract was investigated by Folin–Ciocalteu assay. The content for O. basilicum extract was 317.75±4.105 μg of GAE mg^–1. Antiradical activity of O. basilicum extract expressed as IC₅₀ value of 19.37±0.38 µg·mL^–1. Thus, O. bacilicum can be considered as potential source of biologically active substances.