Screening for bioactive compounds from Adiantum capillus-veneris L.

The aim of the present study was to assess the biological properties of a. capillus-veneris l. and identified the functional compounds in plant extracts. the antimicrobial activities were determined with broth dilution method using 4 gram-positive bacteria,2 gram-negative bacteria and 1 fungus. the antioxidant activities were studied by employing various in vitro antioxidant assays such as dpph • and abts scavenging and fe 3+-fe 2+ transformation method. mtt colori metric analysis was used to measure the cytocide rate on sgc-7901 cell line. the content of total phenolics,tannins and flavones were measured by folin-ciocalteu reagent and aluminum nitrate methods,respectively. phytochemical compounds were analyzed by hplc-dad-ms/ms technique. etoac fraction exhibited broad spectrum antimicrobial activities against all tested microorganism especially against candida albicans with the mic of 0.95 μg/ml. similarly,this fraction also exhibited the strongest antioxidant potential among tested samples. the preliminary phytochemical investigation showed that the etoac fraction possessed a highest total flavones,total phenolics contents (21.65 and 42.11% respectively) and seven major compounds of the etoac fraction were characterized by hplc-dad-ms/ms techniques. 3-p-coumaroylquinic acid and kaempferol 3-o-glucoside were the main compounds. the results indicate the possibility that the observed bioactivities are partly contributed by phenolic acids and flavonoids especially by the compounds of 3-p-coumaroylquinic acid and kaempferol 3-o-glucoside.