Background:
Mandragora was one of the most important medicinal plants and a herb of
great cultural value. The plant is still widely used in Traditional
Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine, TAPHM, for the treatment of many
and varied ailments, including pain, insomnia, eye diseases,
inflammation, and ulcers. Objectives : Evaluate the antioxidant activity of different parts of
Mandragora autumnalis using DPPH, β –carotene linoleic acid assays, and
hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity assays . Evaluate the
antimicrobial activity of all parts of M.autumnalis, using a modified
poisoned food technique for dermatophytes and disc diffusion method for
bacterial strains.
Methods: The antioxidant activity of M. autumnalis was determined using
different methods, including: the DPPH Assay, β-Carotene-Linoleic acid
assay, and Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, while the
antimicrobial activity was determined by using the disc diffusion and
modified poisoned food techniques. The GC-MS spectrophotometer was used
for the identification of active constituents from all parts of
mandragora. Results: From our results it was shown that roots and leaves of
mandragora have antioxidant activity using the DPPH Assay, While non of
the extracts have shown antioxidant activity using the
β-Carotene-Linoleic acid assay, while all parts of mandragora have
antioxidant activity using the Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity.
The Antimicrobial activity of different plant parts were investigated in
this study. From our study, it was shown that only the ethanolic
extracts of mandragora roots have antibacterial activity against the 6
bacterial strains. On the other hand, non of the extracts have shown
antifungal activity.
Studying the chemical composition of the components of the plant using
GC-MS test results have shown that different plant parts contains about
219 chemicals. Comparison between the chemical content of the various
parts of the plant, it was found that coumarins material to be present
in all parts of this plant, while anthraquinones and tannins were found
in all plant parts with the exception of roots, and that glycosides was
found only in ripe fruits.