• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.246-250
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• 2005

A number of species of the genus Centaurea (Family: Asteraceae), distributed in various parts of Asia, Europe and North America, have been used in traditional plant-based medicine and reported to possess various medicinal properties. As part of our continuing evaluation of plants from the genus Centaurea for their phytochemistry and biological activities, the dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) extracts of the seeds of Turkish Centaurea species, C. bornmuelleri, C. huber-morathii and C. schiskinii, were screened for antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Among the three species, C. huber-morathii displayed the most prominent antibacterial activity. Both the MeOH and DCM extracts of this plant showed activity against Citrobacter freundii, Enterococcus faecalis and Salmonella goldcoast with the MIC values within the range of $1\;{\times}\;10^{-2}\;to\;1\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mg/ml$. The MeOH extract of C schiskinii showed activity $(MIC\;=\;1\;{\times}\;10^{-1}\;mg/ml)$ against Citrobacter freundii and Staphylococcus aureus. While the DCM extract of C. bornmuelleri was only active against Staphylococcus aureus $(MIC\;=1\;{\times}\;10^{-2}\;mg/ml)$, the MeOH extract did not show any inhibitory activity at test concentrations. The DCM and MeOH extracts of all three species demonstrated good degree of antioxidant property in the DPPH assay with the $RC_{50}$ values ranging from $72\;{\times}\;10^{-2}\;to\;31{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mg/ml$. Among these extracts, the MeOH extract of C. hubermorathii was the most active antioxidant extract $(MlC\;=\;31\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mg/ml)$.