Antihelicobacterial and antioxidant activities of Mongolian medicinal plants

Biological activities of Mongolian medicinal plants are not so well investigated. Gastric ulcer created by Helicobacter pylori is one of the main diseases among Mongolians. Therefore, the aim of this study was the evaluation of the antihelicobacterial and antioxidant activities of 45 methanolic plant extracts belonging to 36 species of 19 families, which were selected on the basis of their traditional medicinal use. The disc diffusion method [1] and the DPPH assay [2] were used to evaluate these activities. A remarkable antihelicobacterial activity was obtained with the extract of Thymus dahuricus root (Table 1), which might be therefore a reasonable drug in the prevention of gastric ulcer. The strongest antioxidant activity was shown by the Bergenia crassifolia root extract (Table 2).

Table 1. Activity against H. pylori lab strains

	Inhibition zone Ø a, mm
Plant species, parts used b	H. pylori 106.903	H. pylori 107.594
Thymus dahuricus, root	>40	>40
Artemisia changaica, leaves	28	28
Juniperus pseudosabina, stem	28	26
Artemisia pectinata, flowers	22	22
Juniperus sibirica, leaves	22	20
Ciprofloxan (ref, 5µg/disc)	>40	>40

Table 2. Antioxidant activity

Plant species, parts used	DPPH radical scavenging activity IC50, µg/ml
Bergaenia crassifolia, root	11.75
Saxifraga hirculis, leaves	12.06
Potentilla viscose, flowers	15.35
Ephedra equisetina, leaves	22.19
Reaumuria soongarica, flowers	25.67
Rutin (ref.)	17.05

^a Disc Ø: 9mm, ^b Concentration of MeOH extracts: 500µg/disc, n=3

Acknowledgements: Asia-Pacific UNINET, Austrian Exchange Service (OEAD), Asian Research Centre (ARC) at National University of Mongolia.

References: [1] Pharmacopoeia Europaea, ed. 5 (2005) [2] Hatano, T et al. (1988) Chem. Pharm. Bull. 36(6): 2090–2097