Determination of some biological activities of petroleum ether, acetone and methanol extracts of Ajuga vestita and Ajuga xylorrhiza

In the present study, the antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticholinesterase, mutagenic and antimutagenic properties of petroleum ether, acetone and methanol extracts from endemic Ajuga vestita BOISS. and Ajuga xylorrhiza KIT TAN collected from around Diyarbakır were investigated.The antimicrobial activities of extracts have been tested on pathogenic fourbacteria (gram positive Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and gram negative Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Streptococcus pyogenesATCC 19615) and a yeast (Candida albicans ATCC 10231) by using disc diffusion method. Acetone extracts of both plants have been showed moderate antimicrobial activity on S. Pyogenes. Also A. xylorrhiza acetone extract has been showed low antimicrobial activity on E. coli and methanol extract has been showed moderate antimicrobial activity on P. aeruginosa which is higher than activity of vancomycin used as positive control on the same microorganisms. Total phenolic and total flavonoid contents of these extracts were determined as pyrocatechol and quercetin equivalents, respectively and their antioxidant activity was carried out by using four different methods; namely, ß-carotene bleaching method, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ABTS and CUPRAC assays. Extracts have been showed high antioxidant activity in general. That is, some extracts have been showed higher antioxidant activity than BHT and ?-tocopherol used as positive controls.Anticholinesterase activity has been carried out by Ellman method against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes. It was considered that acetone extracts of two plants are highly active compared to the standard of galanthamine. A. vestita petroleum ether and A. xylorrhiza methanol extracts have been showed much closed activity to galantamine against AChE enzyme.XExtracts were examined in terms of mutagenic and antimutagenic activities by the Salmonella / microsome mutagenicity test. Mutagenic experiments were performed in the presence and absence of S9 on Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 strains.The results showed that all extracts which tested did not have any mutagenic effect at all concentrations. Moreover, several concentrations of the extracts showed antimutagenic activity against both NaN3 and Daunomycine mutagens. The antimutagenic activities ranged from 0.59% (TA98? A. vestita methanol extract?100 ?g/plate) to 91.75% (TA100? A. vestita petroleum ether extract?500 ?g/plate).In this thesis, A. vestita and A. xylorrhiza have been investigated for the first time in terms of such biological activity.Key Words: Ajuga vestita, Ajuga xylorrhiza, Antimicrobial Activity, Antioxidant Activity, Anticholinesterase Activity, Mutagenicity, AntimutagenicitySalmonella / Microsome Test