Abstract

EVALUATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL OF LEMNA MINOR FRACTIONS AGAINST PATHOGENIC ORGANISM ISOLATED FROM WATER SAMPLE

Samina Iqbal*, Zakia Khatoon, Saeeda Bano, Kanwal Abbasi, Kauser Siddiqui, and

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Abstract

Duckweeds are tiny, flowering aquatic plants found in lentic water. It has high nutritional, antimicrobial and plankton reduction potential. Active compounds of duckweed (Lemna minor) were alienated by four different solvents and tested for bacterial inhibition and antioxidant potential in order to evaluate its efficacy as an antibacterial agent against known pathogens. Results showed that ethyl acetate fraction exhibited antibacterial properties against all four tested organisms. However, the efficacy of the crude extracts against bacterial growth is dose-dependent. In the phytochemical study, the total phenolic content in Lemna minor was detected as 2.1%. Among different phenolic compounds, flavonoids in a concentration of 0.84% were found best in ethyl acetate fraction. In addition, Duckweed also showed 70.4 % antioxidant activity in ethanol extract. The screening of duckweed revealed the presence of a significant amount of protein content estimated as 0.17 g protein/g dry biomass and the total lipid content was 0.029 g /g dry biomass of Lemna minor.

Keywords: Duckweed, Extract, Antibacterial activity, Antioxidant, Flavonoid.