Antioxidant, antibacterial, and wound-healing properties of methanolic extract of Pistacia khinjuk

To confirm the ethno-therapeutic claims that have been made for Pistacia khinjuk, wound-healing activity and antioxidant activity were studied to understand the mechanism of healing wounds by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method, phenol content, total flavonoid content, and total antioxidant capacity. Antibacterial activity of the methanolic extract of P. khinjuk unripe fruits was characterized against Staphylococcus aureus, Lysteria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using the microbroth dilution method and the disk diffusion susceptibility test. The methanolic extract of P. khinjuk unripe fruits reduced the stable free radical such as DPPH with an 50 % inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 3,650 μg/ml in comparison with butylated hydroxyl toluene, which indicated an IC50 of about 3.9 μg/ml. The wound-healing percent was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in comparison to control wounds. The overall results demonstrated that P. khinjuk possesses antioxidant and antibacterial activities, and it could be used as a natural preservative in food and/or in the pharmaceutical industry. © 2014, Springer-Verlag London.