Antioxidant and antifungal activities of two spices of mangrove plant extract

Objective:To evaluate the antifungal and the radical scavenging capacity related to antioxidant potential of ethanol and water extracts of leaves of Rhizophora mucronata(R.mucronata)and Avicennia marina(A.marina)mangrove plant species against five postharvest pathogenic bacteria.Methods:In vitro assessment of antioxidant and antifungal activities was evaluated in this present study for both aqueous and ethanol extracts prepared from leaves of A.marina and R.mucronata.The antioxidant activities of these mangroves were evaluated by using reducing power and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl assays with butylated hydroxytoluene and L-(+)-ascorbic acid as standards.Results:The result showed that the antioxidant activities of all extracts increased with increasing concentration of extracts.However,the ethanol extracts of both species showed the highest antioxidant activities.Antimicrobial tests were then carried out by the disk diffusion method.The ethanol extracts of both species showed antifungal activities on Penicillium purpurogenum,Penicillium chrysogenum,Penicillium notatum,Aspergillus niger,Alternaria alternata and Penicillium italicum.However,none of the water extracts exhibited antifungal activity on the studied fungi.Among all the pathogens,tested Aspergillus flavus was the most resistant fungi.Different concentrations of extracts from A.marina and R.mucronata showed different amounts of control against tested fungal strains.Conclusions:This study indicated that mangrove species has natural antioxidant and antifungal properties.