Biological activities and phytochemicals of Hyptis capitata grown in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Hyptis capitata is a plant in the family of Lamiaceae used to prevent wound infection and as an antidotefor food poisoning by the Bentian people, a local tribe in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Of the plants in theLamiaceae family, the biological activities and phytochemical studies of H. capitata are less reported. Thiswork aims to investigate the phytochemicals and biological activities of H. capitata grown at two locations inEast Kalimantan, Indonesia. Leaves of H. capitata collected from location 1, Samarinda (coded by HSM), andlocation 2, West Kutai areas (coded by HWK), were macerated using ethanol. The biological activities of theplant were evaluated in terms of antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, and cytotoxicity against Artemia salina,while phytochemicals were analyzed by qualitative and quantitative tests. The results showed that leaf extractof H. capitata contains alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, carbohydrates, and coumarins. HSM possessed higherphenolic and flavonoid content than that of HWK. HWK displayed more antimicrobial activity against thetest microorganisms particularly P. acnes (29%), S. sobrinus (49%), S. aureus (51%), and E. coli (45%). HSMshowed more radical scavenging activity in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (IC50 13.69 µg/ml) and superoxide(IC50 65.11 µg/ml) tests. Brine shrimp lethality test showed no toxicity of H. capitata leaf extracts. The resultsdisplayed that H. capitata collected from the two locations showed good antibacterial and antioxidant activities.The results suggested that the biological activities and phytochemicals of H. capitata were affected by theenvironment where the plant was collected. A study into deep analysis of the effect of light intensity, temperature,soil nutrition, and predatory risks to the biological activity and phytochemicals of the plant is required.