Tradescantia pallida as a Source of Antioxidant and Antibacterial Bioactives: Phytochemistry, Pharmacological Evidence, Extraction Strategies and Future Therapeutic Prospects.

AbstractTradescantia pallida (Rose) D.R. Hunt, commonly known as Purple Heart, is an ornamental perennialbelonging to the family Commelinaceae. The supplied dissertation presents T. pallida as anunderexplored botanical source of antioxidant and antibacterial bioactive constituents and evaluates itsleaf extract through phytochemical screening, total phenolic and flavonoid estimation, free-radicalscavenging assays, and antibacterial testing. The thesis reports that methanolic extraction produced ahigher yield than petroleum ether extraction and recovered a broader range of phytochemical groups,including phenols, flavonoids, tannins, anthocyanins, alkaloids, carbohydrates, proteins/amino acids,phlobatannins and coumarins. Quantitative findings reported in the dissertation include total phenoliccontent of approximately 53 mg/g gallic acid equivalents and total flavonoid content of approximately17.50 mg/g rutin equivalents. The methanolic extract showed DPPH radical-scavenging activity withan IC50 of 49.48 μg/mL and hydrogen-peroxide-scavenging activity with an IC50 of 70.32 μg/mL. Inantibacterial testing, the extract inhibited Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with maximumreported inhibition zones of 11 and 12 mm, respectively, at 100 μg/mL. The thesis also summarizesliterature indicating that T. pallida contains anthocyanins, phenolic acids, flavonoids and volatilesesquiterpenes, and that T. pallida-derived silver nanoparticles can display stronger antioxidant andantimicrobial activity than crude extract preparations. Collectively, the evidence supports T. pallida asa promising research candidate for natural antioxidant and antimicrobial discovery, while emphasizingthe need for compound-level characterization, mechanistic validation, standardized extraction, toxicityevaluation and in vivo confirmation before therapeutic claims can be established.