NOVEL PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ENDEMIC LIBYAN PLANT “ONOPORDUM CYRENAICUM MAIRE & WEILLER” AND ITS ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY

Raw plant extracts are considered the best source for herbal medicines and their derivative products. Onopordum cyrenaicum Maire & Weiller, a species within the Onopordum genus of the Asteraceae family, is a medicinal plant endemic to Libya. This study seeks to explore, for the first time, the phytochemical components and antibacterial properties of this plant. A slightly modified maceration technique was employed to extract the bioactive components successively using three different solvents (petroleum ether, chloroform, and methanol). Phytochemical analysis identified the presence of several phytochemical components, including terpenoids, tannins, glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, and alkaloids. Remarkably, the methanol extract exhibited exceptional antibacterial activity, outperforming the other extracts, with inhibition zones of 28 mm for S. aureus, 22 mm for MRSA, and 30 mm for S. epidermidis, while the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were 6.25, 50, and 3.75 mg/ml, respectively.