Phytochemical, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Properties of Tradescantia Spathacea Sw. Flowers and Root

Lim, Bryan Chi Wah (2024) Phytochemical, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Properties of Tradescantia Spathacea Sw. Flowers and Root. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Tradescantia spathacea Sw. (T. spathacea) is known for its antioxidant properties as it was used as a traditional medicine from the 16th to 19th century, and little research has been done on its phytochemical analysis on the flowers and root. In this study, hexane and ethyl acetate root fractions of T. spathacea were analysed for phytochemical, antioxidant and antibacterial properties analysis. Furthermore, isolation as well as structural elucidation using spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR, FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy and LCMS were conducted. A total of nine compounds, including steroids, β-sitosterol TS1, β-sitosterone TS2, stigmasterol TS3, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate TS4, diethyl phthalate TS5, 2-3-ditert- butylphenol TS6, 2-3-di-tert-butyl-3-ethylphenol TS7, n-tetracosane TS8, ethyl palmitate TS9 were isolated in this study. All these compounds are first time reported from T. spathacea, while TS7 is a newly isolated phenolic compound. The results indicated that ethyl acetate root fraction screened for the DPPH assay showed the highest EC50 of 88 ± 16 μg/mL, followed by ethyl acetate flowers EC50 of 192 ± 10 μg/mL. The hexane and ethyl acetate root fractions of T. spathacea also showed antibacterial activities with MIC values of 20 mg/mL and 10 mg/mL, respectively. For the isolated compounds, TS7 showed the highest antioxidant activity while TS4 showed the highest antibacterial activities. These results can be used for future studies of antioxidant and antibacterial sources. Moreover, cytotoxic MTT assays were conducted against normal MRC-5 human cell line that showed no cytotoxic effects were detected at highest concentration of 200 μg/mL. Therefore, extensive pharmacology studies on T. spathacea are necessary to exploit its potential.