Antimicrobial, cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of saponins and tannins extracts of Algerian Glycyrrhiza glabra L.

Glycyrrhiza glabra L. or licorice is a herbaceous plant of the family Fabaceae, used for millennia by traditional medicine.This plant contains saponins in the roots and tannins in the leaves and roots.The objective of this study is to extract these two groups of secondary metabolites from roots and leaves of this plant collected from Rélizane region, in West of Algeria, as well as testing their antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer activities on various pathogenic bacterial strains: Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 21332), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212) and Salmonella typhimurium (ATTC 13311).The antioxidant activity was assessed by DPPH and ferric reduction antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay and saponins extract of root was found to possess higher antioxidant activity, indicating the presence of compounds effective in the chemical composition of the plant that has a high antioxidant capacity.We noted that Staphylococcus aureus appears to be more sensitive to the effect of saponins extract with 26 mm inhibition zones, whereas Escherichia coli is more sensitive to tannins extract (14.10 mm for the extract of the roots and 15.33 mm for that of the leaves).The IC 50 values on MCF-7 human breast cells were 649.696 µg/ml, 1003.33 µg/ml and 871.32 µg/ml by saponins, tannins of roots and tannins of leaves extracts, respectively.The IC 50 values on L929 fibroblast cells were 334.71 µg/ml, 750.95 µg/ml and 669.52 µg/ml by saponins, tannins of roots and tannins of leaves extracts, respectively.The extracts of G. glabra significantly decreased the growth of breast cancer and fibroblast cells.The results of the study showed that the extracts may be used to treat some diseases but future research is needed.