摘要：Ledebouria revoluta, Berkheya setifera and Carissa bispinosa are some of the medicinal plant s used in South African traditional medicine. An investigation to evaluate antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging activities of the root crude extracts and fractions from the three plants was carried out. Reduction by 2, 2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS.+) and 2, 2-di (4-tert-octylphenyl)-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH.) radicals were used to assess antioxidant capacities by change in absorbance in a UV-VIS spectrophotometer. Anti-inflammatory activity of the plant extracts against 15-soybean derived lipoxygenase (15-LOX) enzyme was evaluated as increase in absorbance at 234 nm after addition of soya bean derived 15-LOX, using linoleic acid (134 µM) as substrate. Anti-microbial activities were determined by assessing the plant samplesMinimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) by a micro dilution method. Carissa bispinosa and Berkheya setifera have shown good to moderate antimicrobial activity . Ledebouria revoluta displayed good activities (20 µg/mL) for both acetone and methanol fractions against E. coli and good-moderate activity (160-320 µg/mL) against the rest of the bacterial strains used. Anti-fungal activity for Ledebouria revoluta methanol fraction (20 µg/mL) is high against Candida albicans . Percentage inhibition of 15-soybean lipoxygenase enzyme by the crude extracts at concentration of 25 µg/mL was for Berkheya setifera , 80%, Carissa bispinosa , 65% and Ledebouria revoluta , 40%.
