Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of Inula confertiflora extracts

Antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic microorganisms are disease causing microbes that cause several diseases in humans, animals, and plants. Currently, these microorganisms cause more than a quarter of the reported diseases worldwide. The other current global health risk is the imbalance generation of free radicals in human physiology, which exposes several millions to oxidative stress diseases like Alzheimer, Cancer, and Diabetes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of Inula confertiflora roots, stems, and leaves extracts. The methanolic, ethyl acetate, and petroleum ether extracts of the roots, stems, and leaves of this plant were separately evaluated against the Gram-positive bacteria strains Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Gram-negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumonia using the agar well diffusion method. Each crude extract was also evaluated by an invitro antioxidant activity test against DPPH free radical reagent. The crude extrats showed moderate to high activities against two Gram-positive bacterial strains, S. aureus and E. faecalis. The petroleum ether extract of the leaves showed the highest activity (39.97 ± 0.12 mm inhibition diameter) against S. aureus. All crude extracts also showed strong free radical scavenging activity, with a maximum percentage scavenging value. The root petroleum ether extracts showed 99.18 ± 0.06% scavenging activity at 1000 (µg/ml) concentration. Extracts from this plant are potentially effective against S. aureus and E. faecalis; they also have strong free radical scavenging activities.