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Comparative analysis of antimicrobial, antioxidant activities and phytochemicals of Himalayan lichens

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Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of lichens collected from Himalaya and to analyze their phytochemicals. Twelve species of lichens investigated in the present study are Cladonia rangiferina, Everniastrum cirrhatum, Flavoparmelia caperata, Lobaria retigera, Nephromopsis nephromoides, Parmotrema nilgherrense, Ramalina conduplicans, Ramalina sinensis, Stereocaulon foliolosum, Usnea longissima, Usnea orientalis and Usnea pangiana. The metabolites of lichens were extracted from acetone, ethyl acetate, chloroform and methanol solvents. The antimicrobial activities were tested against bacteria and fungi at 2 mg/ml concentration. The most active acetone and chloroform extracts of R. conduplicans showed the highest inhibition zone of 22.7 ± 0.2 and 23.3 ± 0.2 mm respectively against Acinetobacter baumannii. The methanol extract of U. longissima showed the maximum inhibitory activity (15.2 ± 2.5 mm) against P. aeruginosa. The principal component analysis of different lichen extracts complimented the result observed for antibacterial activities for various extracts. Usnea longissima showed strong antioxidant activity with IC50 of free radical scavenging activities 116.24 ± 1.8 µg/ml. The Usnea species exhibited the maximum contents of phytochemicals that may be responsible for antioxidant activities. Acetone and chloroform extracts of R. conduplicans and methanol extract of U. longissima were subjected to GC–MS. In the present study, GC–MS revealed that 4,6-diamino-O-cresol was at highest concentration of 75.37% in acetone extract, followed by 51.53% of methoxy benzyl alcohol in chloroform extract of R. conduplicans and benzoic acid, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-6-methyl-, methyl ester that was 44.5% in methanol extract of U. longissima. The presence of various compounds in extracts may be responsible for excellent bioactivities exhibited by the lichen.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Director, CSIR-NBRI for providing laboratory facility for study under the in-house project OLP 0114, to Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya for academic support. Thanks are due Dr. Rajesh Bajpai for providing lichens specimens of Cladonia rangiferina. Thanks to Mr. Sonik Anto, Senior Research Fellow (SRF) at CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow for helping in PCA analysis. Thanks to Mr. Pradeep Kumar, SRF at CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow for helping in compounds identification and classification. This manuscript carries number provided by institute’s publication ethics committee CSIR-NBRI_MS/2023/10/12.

Funding

A grant from the Counselling of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. Program from May 2018 to May 2023 to help this work in the form of JRF and SRF. Fellowship sr. no. 1121530676 and ref. no. 20/12/2015 (II) EU-V.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lichenology Laboratory, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, 226001, India

    Praphool Kumar, Sanjeeva Nayaka & Dalip Kumar Upreti

  2. Department of Microbiology, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Allahabad Road, Ayodhya, 224001, India

    Praphool Kumar & Tuhina Verma

  3. Central Instrumentation Facility, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, 226001, India

    Abhishekh Niranjan

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  1. Praphool Kumar
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Contributions

PK: Investigation, conceptualization, writing, original draft preparation and reading analysis, SN: Investigation, analysis, writing—reviewing, editing and validation. TV: Conceptualization, validation, writing— reviewing and editing. AN: Resources, writing-reviewing and editing. DKU: Specimens identification and validation.

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Correspondence to Sanjeeva Nayaka.

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Kumar, P., Nayaka, S., Verma, T. et al. Comparative analysis of antimicrobial, antioxidant activities and phytochemicals of Himalayan lichens. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-024-05315-9

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