Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Assessment of Leafy Vegetables Collected from Solid Waste Dumping Ground and Normal Ground - A Comparative Study

Author: Paramita Barman, Debasree Ghosh and Ayan Saha

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Abstract

Vegetables having antimicrobial activities play significant role against some pathogenic microorganisms. The study aims to assess and compare moisture content, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of some selected leafy vegetables collected from Solid Waste Dumping Ground (SWDG) at Titagarh, Kolkata, West Bengal, India and from Normal ground (NG) namely Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), Red Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) and Ceylon Spinach (Basella alba). Matured, disease free and fresh leafy samples were collected from different SWDG and NG. Vegetables collected from NG showed significant higher values of all parameters compared to SWDG (P< 0.05). Disc diffusion method was applied for antimicrobial assessment at different concentrations (50μl and 100μl) against Gram negative organisms. The inhibitory action was indicated in almost all raw leafy vegetables but, vegetables having concentrations of 50μl and 100μl, showed no inhibitory effect on the tested organism except leaves of L. siceraria (100μl). Among these vegetables collected from SWDG, showed maximum inhibitory effect in leaves of L. siceraria followed by B. alba and in A. cruentus against Gram negative organism. It has been concluded that, cultivation on solid waste have significant positive impact on the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of leafy vegetables.

Keywords

Antioxidant activity, phytochemical screening, disc diffusion method, antimicrobial activity, antibacterial susceptibility test, SWDG, NG and CFU

Conclusion

The results obtained from this study provided evidence that ethanol extracts of three types of commonly consumed green leafy vegetables collected from SWDG Titagrah (Kolkata, West Bengal) and NG contained substantial amount of phytochemicals, polyphenols and flavonoids representing antioxidant properties. From the study it has been concluded that the polyphenol and flavonoid contents were found to be significantly higher (P< 0.05) in the samples collected from SWDG as compared to those that were collected from NG which might be due to the higher concentration of heavy metals coming from the contaminated soil with solid wastes as reported by several previous studies. Higher amount of flavonoids may be due to the presence of tea leaves as waste in SWDG. It has also been concluded that, raw extract of vegetables from different places of SWDG and NG exhibited beneficial antibacterial activity against Gram negative bacterial strains with varying degrees of potency. Leafy vegetables collected from SWDG, significantly had more antimicrobial property than vegetables from NG (P< 0.05). Bioactive compounds are normally accumulated as secondary metabolites in all plant cells and presence of these bio-active compounds might be a reason to indicate high antibacterial activity of these leafy extracts.

References

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How to cite this article

Paramita Barman, Debasree Ghosh and Ayan Saha (2023). Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Assessment of Leafy Vegetables Collected from Solid Waste Dumping Ground and Normal Ground - A Comparative Study. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(3): 298-304.