Phytochemical screening and evaluation of the antioxidant and anti-bacterial activity of Woundwort (Anthyllis vulneraria L.)

For millennia, medicinal plants have been used to prevent and cure diseases. Up to now there is a growing interest in their use in several areas as conducted for Anthyllis in our investigation. Actually the present research aims to investigate the biochemical characterisation of a medicinal plant collected from Tunisia named Woundwort [Anthyllis vulneraria L. (Jones and Turrill 1933)] by determining the mineral content, phenolic compound contents and biological activities of its leaf and flower extracts. On the one hand, the results obtained showed that A. vulneraria accumulated minerals at different amounts with significant differences between leaves and flowers extracts. On the other hand, the data revealed that the hydroethanolic flower extract contained the highest content of total polyphenols, flavonoids and condensed tannin, as it exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity. The flower extract also showed better antibacterial effect than leaf extract. These results support the exploitation of active compounds extracted from the leaves and especially the flowers of A. vulneraria, which can provide new alternatives to the use of certain drugs, additives, among others, as they can be used as structure–activity models for the development of new products.