Phytochemical screening and biological activity of Warionia saharae Benth & Coss growing wild in Bechar, South-West Algeria

Abstract

Plants have phytotherapeutic properties such as antioxidant and antimicro-bial properties, and their rare use remains a very interesting task in medi-cine. The present work addresses the new natural substances extracted from the plant Warionia saharae, and the study of their biological, antioxidant and antifungal activities in vitro. A qualitative analysis was performed by a phyto-chemical screening of the plants. The direct contact method in solid medium carried a study of the antifungal activity of organic and aqueous extracts against four fungal strains. After, an estimation of the antioxidant power of these extracts and that of ascorbic acid by the DPPH free radical reduction method was performed. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of reducing compounds, saponosides with a foam index of 120, tannins, alka-loids, anthocyanosides. The antifungal activity results show that the hexane extract has potent inhibitory activity against fungal strains. The MIC is 2.42 mg/ml for Penicillium sp. and 3.5 mg/ml for Fusarium sp., followed by the ethanolic extract. The antioxidant activity estimates IC50% of 6.09 μg/ml for the ethanolic extract, while the positive control, ascorbic acid, is 1.02 μg/ml. These preliminary in vitro results show that natural extracts of W. saharae Benth & Coss exhibit significant antifungal activity and antiradical power. In conclusion, this work is part of the valorization of a medicinal plant W. saha-rae grown spontaneously in the region of Bechar.