Variations in Chemicals and Antimicrobial Properties of Schinus molle Fruits Grown in Abha Area, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Antimicrobial properties of various solvent extracts from fruits of Schinus molle grown in the Abha area of Saudi Arabia were determined against selected gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and Candida species using the agar well diffusion method. Seven populations from S. molle plants situated at 2193-m, 2246-m, 2197.7-m, 2441-m, 2372- m, 2250.6-m and 2175-m were assessed. The results revealed that different solvent extracts of the fruits demonstrated antimicrobial effects on all microbial strains tested. The maximum activities were exhibited by (i) an acetone extract from population at 2246-m ($33.00 \pm 0.57$ mm), (ii) ethanol extract from population at 2193-m ($30.00 \pm 1.15$ mm) against Staphylococcus aureus and (iii) from a hot acetone extract ($22.00 \pm 3.21$ mm) from the population at 2372-m against Micrococcus luteus. The MICs levels of the acetone extract range from 0.502 to 0.289 g/ml against S. aureus, and hot methanol fruits extracts against Candidaalbicans range from 0.335 to 0.259 g/ml. GC–MS and HPLC analysis revealed the presence of dominant phytochemicals in each population, including 2-pentanone, 4-hydroxy-4-methyl- and vitamin $\hbox {B}_{12}$ in populations at 2175-m, 2193-m, 2197.7-m and 2250.6-m; 2-pentanone, 4-hydroxy-4-methyl- and folic acid in populations at 2246-m and 2441-m; 2-pentanone, 4-hydroxy-4-methyl- and vitamin $\hbox {B}_{1}$ in populations at 2372-m. In conclusion, these findings indicate that extracts of S. molle fruit may be used as source of natural compounds for the manufacture of antibiotic drugs. Variable amount of phytocompounds and vitamins in each location may be used as chemotype fingerprint of the plant species related to its geographic distributions.