Abstract:
Vernonia hymenolepis is a medicinal plant which has been known to be used for the treatments of
various diseases including pneumonia, hypertension, toothache, diarrhea, jaundice, amoebiasis,
malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, fever, stomach ache and constipation by different communities in
Ethiopia. However, its phytochemical and biological information is very limited. Following its
medicinal importance, the plant material was collected from Oromia regional state, East Wollega
Zone Jimma Arjo woreda. The plant material was air dried and sequentially extracted with
chloroform and methanol. The resulting crude extracts were in vitro assayed against four
bacterial strains (Bacillus subtilis ATCC11778, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, Escherichia
coli ATCC25922, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853) and one fungal strain (Candida
albicans) using disc diffusion method. The crude extracts showed promising antibacterial
activities with the highest activity observed for chloroform extract against E. coli (18 mm) but
lower than that of the reference drug gentamycin (25 mm). The methanol extract showed the
highest activity (13 mm) against the fungal strain Candida albicans as compared to the reference
drug, clotrimazole, (12 mm). The antimicrobial activity displayed by the root extracts of Vernonia
hymenolepis validates the traditional use of this plant against bacterial infections. Finally, silica
gel column chromatographic separation of the chloroform resulted in isolation of two compounds
(1 and 2); betulinic acid (3β-hydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid) and 4-(α-hydroxyacrylic) phenol.
The structures of the isolated compounds were established using 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopic
methods and comparison with literature reports.
