Phytochemical and in vitro biological profiling of Portulaca grandiflora whole plant extracts

P. grandiflora is a small herbaceous annual herb from Portulacaceae family and found useful in mitigating the health care crisis. The study aimed to determine the phytochemicals and to examine the in vitro antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer potential of Portulaca grandiflora. Crude methanolic, ethanolic and n-Hexane extracts of whole plant were used for this study. Antimicrobial properties were estimated through disk diffusion assay, antioxidant activity was determined by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl scavenging (DPPH), total antioxidant capability and reducing power assays. From the results it was found that methanolic extract of P. grandiflora showed the highest zone of inhibition against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans i.e. 36 ±1mm and 18 ±1 mm respectively with MIC of 25 μg/ml. The highest amount of gallic acid equivalent phenolic and quercetin equivalent flavonoid content were found in methanolic extract of P. grandiflora i.e. 77 ± 0.68 μg GAE/mg extract and 63 ± 1.08 μg QE/mg extract. The significant DPPH scavenging activity (P< 0.05) wasrecorded for methanolic extract of P. grandiflora (87%). Considerably greater antioxidant capacity (10 ± 1.18 μg AAE/mg) and reducing power (4.06 ± 0.18 μg AAE/mg) was observed in methanolic extract. MTT cell viability assay methanolic extract of P. grandiflora showed the IC50 of 42.70 μg/ml at 72h. Whole plant extracts in different solvents exhibit strong pharmacological properties thus suggesting it as a major source of pharmaceutical industry.