Antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity of active compounds of Withania somnifera extracts

       In this study Withania somnifera leaves were collected from gardens of Al-Nahrain University. Then the leaves powder was used to get three type of extracts, each type of Withania extracts (water, ethanol and acetone extract) were subjected to chemical analysis to identify the active compounds in each extract which indicated that alkaloids, glycoside, saponins, flavonoids, fixed oil were present in ethanol, acetone and water extracts, while absent of terpene in water extract and protein in acetone extract, Tannins were not found in all extract types. Numbers of active group in Withania extracts were detected by FTIR method. HPLC analysis was done to detect the concentration of important active compounds (alkaloid, flavonoid and saponin) present in the water,acetone and ethanol extracts of Withania. All three types of Withania extracts contained two types of Alkaloids (WithanolideA and Withaferin-A), seven types of Flavonoids (Naringenin,Catechin,Luteolin, Hesperetin,Kaempfero, Apigenin and Naringin)and two types of Saponins (Sitoindosides VII and Sitoindosides VIII) appeared as different peaks.All three types of Withania extracts (acetone, water and ethanol extracts) showed antibacterial activity on the following bacteria
(Escherichia coli, Enterobacter sakazakii, Klebsiella pneumonia,Staphylocuss aureus, Staphylocuss epidermis, Streptococcus pyogenes,Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) with probability (P<0.05)
and only Acetone extract showed activity on fungal isolate (Trichophyton violaceum). The cytotoxic activity of the plant extracts  was determined by evaluating the  effects on the growth of HepG2 cell line after
incubation for 72 hour with different concentrations (80, 100 and 120 mg/ml) of plant extracts (water, ethanol and acetone extracts). W. somnifera extracts have cytotoxic effect on HepG2 cell line with probability (P< 0.01), higher cytotoxic effect was belonged to ethanol extract at 120 mg/ml concentration followed by the water extract and the acetone extract was the lowest one.