Antibacterial, Anti-Diarrhoeal, Analgesic, Cytotoxic Activities, and GC-MS Profiling of <i>Sonneratia apetala</i> (Buch.-Ham.) Seed.

Abstract

Fruits of <i>Sonneratia apetala</i> (Buch.-Ham.), (English: mangrove apple, Bengali: keora) both seeds and pericarps, are largely consumed as food besides their enormous medicinal application. The fruit seeds have high content of nutrients and bioactive components. The seeds powder of <i>S. apetala</i> was successively fractionated using <i>n</i>-hexane, diethyl ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol. The fractions were used to evaluate antibacterial, anti-diarrhoeal, analgesic, and cytotoxic activities. Methanol fraction of seeds (MeS) stronly inhibited <i>Escherichia coli</i> strains, <i>Salmonella</i> Paratyphi A, <i>Salmonella</i> Typhi, <i>Shigella dysenteriae</i>, and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> except <i>Vibrio cholerae</i> at 500 μg/disc. All the fractions strongly inhibited castor oil induced diarrhoeal episodes and onset time in mice at 500 mg extract/kg body weight (<i>P</i><0.001). At the same concentration, MeS had the strongest inhibitory activity on diarrhoeal episodes, whereas the <i>n</i>-hexane fraction (HS) significantly (<i>P</i><0.05) prolonged diarrhoeal onset time as compared to positive control. Similarly, HS (<i>P</i><0.005) inhibited acetic acid induced writhing in mice at 500 mg extract/kg, more than any other fraction. HS and diethyl ether fractions of seed strongly increased reaction time of mice in hot plate test at 500 mg extract/kg. All the fractions showed strong cytotoxic effects in brine shrimp lethality tests. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of HS led to the identification of 23 compounds. Linoleic acid (29.9%), palmitic acid (23.2%), ascorbyl palmitate (21.2%), and stearic acid (10.5%) were the major compounds in HS. These results suggest that seeds of <i>S. apetala</i> could be of great use as nutraceuticals.