ANTIMICROBIAL, ANTIOXIDANT AND SOME BIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ARNICA MONTANA L.

Abstract

Over the past years there has been a growing interest to plant raw materials evaluated from the viewpoint of their potential antimicrobial activity. Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites, such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, and flavonoids, which have been found in vitro to have antimicrobial properties. Arnica genus plants are known to contain a whole spectrum of biologically active substances with anti-inflammatory, gene-protective, antidiabetic, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The purpose of the work was to study the antimicrobial, antioxidant and some biochemical properties of alcoholic extracts of aboveground parts of Arnica montana L., gathered in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Methods. The plants for the study were gathered in Mizhhiria rayon, Zakarpatska oblast (Transcarpathia). From aboveground parts, ethyl and methyl extracts were produced. The subjects for study were their antioxidant activity (by DPPH method), total tannin and flavonoids (by spectrophotometric method), and antimicrobial activity (by diffusion-into-agar method). For the purpose of study, typical and clinical isolates were used from the oral cavity of human patients suffering from inflammatory diseases of periodontium, characterized by wide resistance spectrum to antibiotics. Results. Test cultures differently reacted to extracts of A. montana: of the tested strains of bacteria the most sensitive found S. aureus and S. pyogenes. The ethanol and methanol extracts were observed to show weak antimycotic activity. The extracts were characterized by high antioxidant activity, with the highest effect peculiar for ethyl extracts, and somewhat lower one for methyl extracts. The ethanol extract was characterized by the highest tannin level out of all extracts under review. Conclusions. The results obtained indicate the prospect of using extracts from A. montana as antistatic and antimycological drugs. The obtained results indicated to good prospects for further research in order to create Arnica based preparations as mouth cavity care and hygienic products.