Abstract:
Sweet mytcea (Myrtus communis) plant is one of the commonly used traditional medicinal plants
in Ethiopia for treating malaria, headache, and stomachache. The present study intended to
investigate the phytochemicals, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of petroleum ether,
ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Myrtus communis leaves. Qualitative phytochemical
screening of the crude extracts revealed the presence of phenolic, flavonoids, terpenoids,
glycosides, steroids, Saponins and tannins. The antibacterial activity of leaf extract of Myrtus
communis was performed against four bacterials species S. aureus, E coli, S. pyrogens, K.
pneumonia, at concentrations of 1000 ppm, 500ppm, 250ppm, 125ppm and 62.5ppm. The result
revealed that the methanol and ethyl acetate extracts showed a better activity against all diseasecausing
pathogens bacterial while, at 1000ppm concentration petroleum ether extracts were
active against microorganisms. The total phenolic content of methanol, ethyl acetate and
petroleum ether extract was82.64mgGAE/g, 61.2 mgGAE/g and 52.5 mgGAE/g dry samples
respectively. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical
(DPPH). All crude extracts of leaves exhibited antioxidant activities. The highest antioxidant
activity was found methanol extract (82.64 % in DPPH with IC50 value 61.43 ppm), followed by
ethyl acetate extract (61.2%in DPPH with IC 50 value 81.05 ppm ) and petroleum ether extract
(52.5 % in DPPH with IC50 value 130.33 ppm ;the lower IC50 value which showed the radical
scavenge activity to be effective in this solvent extract. In the same condition methanol, ethyl
acetate and petroleum ether extract showed high antioxidant activity and oxygen free radicals
scavenging abilities which were found almost equivalent to the ascorbic acid standard
antioxidant activity.