Biological activities of spike moss Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring. collected from Co Thach, Binh Thuan

Abstract

In Vietnam, Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring. has been used as a traditional medicine for osteoarthritis, haemorrhage, hepatitis, burn, … However, Selaginella tamariscina is less studied than in other countries. Therefore, this research focuses on study some bioactivities (such as antioxidative, antibacterial activities, and inhibition of albumin denaturation) and preliminary phytochemical screening of six extracts (ethanol extracts of root, leaf, whole plant, petroleum extracts of root, leaf, whole plant) of S. tamariscina collect from Co Thach, Binh Thuan Province. The preliminary phytochemical screening results show that Selaginella tamariscina extracts have most of secondary metabolite groups such as phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, and lactone. The antibacterial activity of the ethanol extract of root is higher than that of other extracts. Moreover, the ethanol extract of root also has the highest reducing ability and free radical scavenging activity, with EC50 = 1.590 ± 0.091mg/ml. In the anti-denaturation of albumin test, the petroleum ether extract of whole plant has the lowest IC50 at 99 ± 5μg/ml.