Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF GREEN TEA AND ROSEMARY LEAVES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Amira Mohammed Beltagy*

Abstract

Green tea and rosemary are known as highly potent antioxidant drugs. Little idea is known about their leaf fatty acids, steroids and terpenoids. Thus, the aim of this work was to investigate the lipoidal matter composition of their leaves and to test for antimicrobial activities of both leaf extracts as a comparative study as well as their 1:1 extract mixture. GC/MS analysis of the unsaponifiable part of the light petroleum fraction of 70% ethanolic extract resulted in the identification of phytol as the major constituent (36.24%) in green tea and α- amyrin as the major constituent (38.8%) in rosemary leaves. Palmitic acid was detected as the main saturated fatty acid in both plants with much higher concentration in green tea (35.70%) than in rosemary (12.3 %). Analysis resulted in identification of new constituents that were not detected previously in both plants. Also give confirmation of some synthetic pathways as in rosemary. Screening the antimicrobial activities of both leaf extracts ensured their antimicrobial effect. Gentamycin and fluconazole were used as the positive antibacterial and antifungal control respectively. Both aqueous extracts were more potent against all the tested microbes than the alcoholic ones. Green tea was found to be more potent than rosemary. No valuable synergism was observed on mixing both plant extracts. MIC of both extracts was 25 mg/ml. The susceptibility of Salmonella typhi isolates and Candida albicans lab isolates in this study may provide a new plant source for safe and efficient anti bacterial drugs.

Keywords: green tea, rosemary, lipoidal matter, antimicrobial.