Antioxidant and antibacterial activity of Allium saralicum and Allium longisepalum leaves extracts as medicinal plants in Iran

Recently, there has been increasing interest in medicinal plants, due to their content of health-promoting compounds, e.g., phenolics. Hence, this study aims to estimate the antioxidant andantibacterial properties of Soraneh (Allium saralicum R.M. Fritsch)and Pichkeh(Allium longisepalum)extracts as a Iranian medicinal plants. The study was done by 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antibacterial effects of the herbal extracts were determined.According to results, the highest total phenolic content (1.187±0.012mgGAE/g) was obtained in aqueous extract of Pichkeh. The highest total flavonoid content(1.193±0.004mgRE/g) and the antioxidant activity (5.93±0.07%) were found for hydroalcoholicextract of Soraneh and Pichkeh,respectively. In disk-diffusion test, for two extracts, the highest and lowest antibacterial effect was observed for L.monocytogenesand S. aureus, respectively. Soraneh extract had the highest and the lowest antibacterial effect on L.monocytogenesand P.aeruginosa,respectively.In the well-diffusion method, Pichkehextract had the highest antibacterial effect on S.aureus. For the Soraneh extract, the highest effect was related to B. cereus, andthere was also no detectable colony of S.aureus, P.aeruginosaand S.enterica. The results of present comprehensive analysis demonstrated that Soraneh and Pichkeh leaves possess high phenolic, flavonoid contents and potential antioxidant and antibacterial activity, and could be used as a viable source of bioactive compounds and might be exploited for functional foods and neutraceutical applications.