Professional Documents
Culture Documents
115
Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Department, Dubai Pharmacy College, P.O.BOX: 19099; Dubai United Arab Emirates
b
Keywords: Zea Mays, Corn silk, Plant extract, Flavonoid glycosides, Antimicrobial activity.
1. INTRODUCTION
Corn silk ascribed as stigmata of maize female
flowers of Zea mays L. (Gramineae), are fine soft
thread 10-20 cm long, commonly cultivated in warm
climates. It is medicinally used as a mild stimulant,
diuretic and demulcent, useful in acute and chronic
cystitis and in the bladder irritation of uric acid and
phosphatic gravel; has also been employed in
Gonorrhoea [1]. In Chinese medicine, corn silk is used
for oedema of various origin and for hepato-biliary
disease [2]. The medicinal properties of corn silk
supported by several authors as it exhibited antioxidant
activity [3-6], anti-diabetic activity [7, 8], antibiotic
activity towards corn earworm [9], resistance to insect
attacks [10] and antitumour activity [11]. Phytochemical
studies on corn silk revealed that it contained a number
of flavonoids, chlorogenic acid, p-coumaric, ferulic acid,
saponins, phytosterols, volatile oil, fixed oil, resin,
sugars, allantoin, tannin and minerals [12-16]. Since
one of the standard approaches for determining
potential medicinal use of plants and their chemical
constituents is to screen them for activity against a
wide range of viruses, bacteria and pathogenic fungi,
therefore, the present work was undertaken to further
116
Flavonoid
Glycosides
from
Nessa et al.
336 (sh), 280(sh), 259, 212; AlCl3 389, 365, 297 (sh),
279, 262 (sh), 235 (sh), 211; AlCl3/HCl 387, 361, 298
(sh), 279, 260 (sh), 235 (sh), 211; NaOAc 407, 279,
221; NaOAc/H3BO3 349, 270, 222 nm; IR bands (KBr
disc): 3444, 1726, 1642, 1623, 1346, 1198, 1088, 831
1
+
cm ; ESI-MS m/z (%): M +1, 591 (100), 445 (46) and
1
13
315 (25). H NMR (300 MHz, DMSO) and C NMR (75
MHz, DMSO) spectral data are presented in Table 1.
2.5. Antimicrobial Screening
The microorganisms used in this study included four
gram-positive bacteria e.g. B. cereus, B. subtilis, Staph.
aureus, P. aeruginosa and eight gram-negative
bacteria e.g. Ent. aerogenes, S. typhi, S. paratyphi, E.
coli, S. sonnei, S. flexneri, Prot. vulgaris, Prot. mirabilis
and one yeast e.g. C. albicans, were obtained from the
stock culture of the Microbiology Laboratory of the
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Bacterial strains were
grown on nutrient agar and yeast strains in sabouroud
dextrose agar suspended in nutrient broth.
Subculturing was done once weekly.
The microbial growth inhibitory potential of the
extracts was determined by using the agar hole-plate
diffusion method [17]. For preparation of inocula, few
colonies were mixed with sterile 0.8% nutrient broth
solution and compared the turbidity with that of
standard 0.5 McFarland solutions, which was
6
8
equivalent to 10 -10 CFU/ml. The inoculum was added
to molten agar and the media was thoroughly shaken
to disperse the microorganisms. Different organic
solvent extracts of corn silk (25 mg/ml) and the isolated
compound (2.0 mg/ml) were prepared in 10% DMSO
[17]. Holes (7 mm diameter) were made in the solidified
media by punching with a sterile cork borer, then 70 L
of the plant extract solution was introduced in each
hole. For positive control, 70 L of standard antibiotic
gentamycin solution (50 g/ml) was introduced into the
wells. A blank was also run, consisting of holes with 70
L of the solvent only (10% DMSO). This was done to
check for sterility and any growth inhibitory potential of
the solvent. All plates were left at room temperature for
2 hr to allow the diffusion process to take place. Then
the plates were incubated at 25 C for 3 days for
fungus and at 37 C for 24 hr for the bacteria. All
determinations were performed in triplicate. Zones of
inhibition were measured after the incubation period
from the edge of each well. All the results are
expressed as mean standard deviation (S.D.). The
data were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and Tukeys test (p<0.05) was performed to
13
Maysin (I)
1
H NMR
117
H NMR
13
C2
164.53
164.30
C3
6.70 (1H, s)
103.53
6.92 (1H, s)
104.40
C4
182.93
183.10
C5
162.07
162.10
C6
108.37
108.30
C7
163.06
164.20
C8
6.49 (1H, s)
93.86
6.54 (1H, s)
94.00
C9
157.33
157.30
C10
103.76
103.80
C1
122.13
122.10
C2
114.15
110.90
C3
146.62
148.92
C4
150.62
151.60
C5
116.94
116.60
C6
119.86
121.2
C1
72.03
72.0
C2
78.90
78.40
C3
78.96
78.90
C4
206.90
206.90
C5
76.26
76.20
C6
18.16
18.17
C1
100.09
100.0
C2
3.77 (1H, s)
70.99
3.70 (1H, s)
71.0
C3
70.99
71.0
C4
74.14
74.10
C5
69.70
69.70
C6
19.83
19.80
3.99 (3H, s)
56.80
(-CH3)
(-CH3)
3-OCH 3
Determination
of
Isolated
118
Nessa et al.
OH
OCH3
OH
HO
6''
5''
H
4''
HO
5'''
OH
H
4'''
HO
O
6''
3''
OH
2''
H
4''
H O
1'''
HO
O
3''
CH3
5'''
OH
OH
OH
H
4'''
OH
2''
H O
1'''
6'''
O H 2'''
3'''
5''
1''
CH3
6'''
CH3
OH
1''
CH3
119
O H 2'''
3'''
OH
OH
Compound I
Compound II
Figure 1: Structures of the isolated compounds I (maysin) and II (maysin-3-methyl ether) from the n-butanol fraction of
methanol extract of corn silk.
Table 2.
Pet-ether
Chloroform
Methanol
Extract (PECS)
Extract (CECS)
Extract (MECS)
(25 mg/ml)
(25 (mg/ml)
(25 mg/ml)
Bacillus cereus
12.17 0.22
10.98 0.12
10.66 0.31
Microorganisms
Gentamycin
(50 g/ml)
8.00 0.13
Bacillus subtilis
*11.16 0.07
*11.08 0.18
*11.27 0.12
8.08 0.11
Staphylococcus aureus
10.45 0.22
4.58 0.58
*8.61 0.37
*8.00 0.24
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
8.37 0.13
10.15 0.15
11.23 0.21
Enterobacter aerogenes
8.61 0.25
7.01 0.12
11.46 0.10
10.00 0.01
Salmonella typhi
9.75 0.19
11.33 0.21
13.04 0.19
Salmonella paratyphi
*8.5 + 0.17
*7.47 + 0.43
*8.01 0.15
Escherichia coli
5.07 0.06
Shigella sonnei
*10.45 0.25
8.43 + 0.38
*10.55 0.13
*9.98 0.20
Shigella flexneri
5.94 0.24
7.12 0.09
6.01 0.13
Proteus vulgaris
10.18 0.21
*8.01 0.11
*8.00 0.02
Proteus mirabilis
11.22 0.17
6.59 0.35
8.03 0.07
Candida albicans
Values are means of three readings ( S.D.). *Values are not significant within the row (p<0.05).
120
Nessa et al.
Microorganisms
Maysin (I)
(2.0 mg/mL)
Gentamycin
(50 g/mL)
Bacillus cereus
17.45 0.24
11.17 0.11
8.00 0.13
Bacillus subtilis
13.15 0.29
10.12 0.15
8.08 0.11
Staphylococcus aureus
11.3 2 0.14
*8.07 0.18
*8.00 0.24
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
8.6 7 0.19
7.17 0.14
11.23 0.21
Enterobacter aerogenes
*10.18 0.17
*10.19 0.15
*10.00 0.01
Salmonella typhi
*9.92 0.27
*9.25 0.16
13.04 0.19
Salmonella paratyphi
*8.16 0.11
7.01 0.21
*8.01 0.15
Escherichia coli
5.07 0.06
Shigella sonnei
15.23 0.23
12.15 0.25
9.98 0.20
Shigella flexneri
8.22 0.16
7.11 0.09
6.01 0.13
Proteus vulgaris
*13.01 0.18
*12.45 0.21
8.00 0.02
Proteus mirabilis
*8.25 0.19
6.55 0.11
*8.03 0.07
Candida albicans
Values are means of three readings ( S.D.). *Values are not significant within the row (p<0.05).
121
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Elliger CA, Chan GB, Waiss AC Jr, Lundin RE, Haddon WF.
Glycosylflavones from Zea mays that inhibit insect
development. Phytochem 1980; 19: 293-7.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9422(00)81977-9
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Received on 01-01-2012
Accepted on 28-04-2012
K.
Published on 15-06-2012
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1927-3037/2012.01.02.02