Antibacterial, antifungal, and phytochemical properties of Salsola kali ethanolic extract

Shimaa Bashir; Said Behiry; Abdulaziz A Al-Askar; Przemysław Łukasz Kowalczewski; Haitham H Emaish; Ahmed Abdelkhalek

doi:10.1515/biol-2022-0962

Antibacterial, antifungal, and phytochemical properties of Salsola kali ethanolic extract

Open Life Sci. 2024 Sep 3;19(1):20220962. doi: 10.1515/biol-2022-0962. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Shimaa Bashir¹, Said Behiry², Abdulaziz A Al-Askar³, Przemysław Łukasz Kowalczewski⁴, Haitham H Emaish⁵, Ahmed Abdelkhalek¹

Affiliations

¹ Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.
² Agricultural Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21531, Egypt.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Food Technology of Plant Origin, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
⁵ Department of Soils and Agricultural Chemistry, Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21531, Egypt.

Abstract

The research into the use of plants as plentiful reservoirs of bioactive chemicals shows significant potential for agricultural uses. This study focused on analyzing the chemical composition and potency of an ethanolic extract obtained from the aerial parts (leaves and stems) of Salsola kali against potato pathogenic fungal and bacterial pathogens. The isolated fungal isolates were unequivocally identified as Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani based on morphological characteristics and internal transcribed spacer genetic sequencing data. The antifungal activity of the extract revealed good inhibition efficacy against R. solani (60.4%) and weak activity against F. oxysporum (11.1%) at a concentration of 5,000 µg/mL. The S. kali extract exhibited strong antibacterial activity, as evidenced by the significant inhibition zone diameter (mm) observed in all three strains of bacteria that were tested: Pectobacterium carotovorum (13.33), Pectobacterium atrosepticum (9.00), and Ralstonia solanacearum (9.33), at a concentration of 10,000 µg/mL. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed the presence of several polyphenolic compounds (μg/g), with gallic acid (2942.8), caffeic acid (2110.2), cinnamic acid (1943.1), and chlorogenic acid (858.4) being the predominant ones. Quercetin and hesperetin were the predominant flavonoid components, with concentrations of 1110.3 and 1059.3 μg/g, respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis revealed the presence of many bioactive compounds, such as saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, diterpenes, and phytosterols. The most abundant compound detected was n-hexadecanoic acid, which accounted for 28.1%. The results emphasize the potential of S. kali extract as a valuable source of bioactive substances that possess good antifungal and antibacterial effects, which highlights its potential for many agricultural uses.

Keywords: GC-MS; HPLC; Salsola kali; antibacterial activity; antifungal activity; phytochemical.