Antibacterial and invitro antioxidant potential of Indian mangroves

Abstract Herbal tea is medicinally well-known for its biochemical composition and medicinal usages. The present study proved for the first time that tea would be extracted from mangroves, the plants other than commercial tea. Mangroves tea exhibitd good quality in the terms of theaflavin (TF), thearubigins (TR), total liquor colour (TLC) and highly polymerized substantce (HPS). Phytochemical screening of tea revealed the presence of phytochemical compounds such as protein, phenol and flavonoids etc. The antioxidant properties of Rhizophora mucronata, Rhizophora apiculata, and Rhizophora annamalayana showed dose dependent activities and were comparatively much higher in R. mucronata. R. mucronata (86.50 ± 0.35%) showed much higher total antioxidant activity followed by R. apiculata (73.34 ± 0.90%) and R. annamalayana (69.35 ± 0.56%) at 100 μg/mL concentration. The antimicrobial activity was higher in R. mucronata and R. apiculata than R. annamalayana as evident by the presences of phenolic N–H and OH components found in mangroves tea. Therefore mangroves are rich source of tea, biochemical constituent, phytochemical, antioxidant and antibacterial properties. The extract contained polyphenolic and other bioactive compounds can be used for herbal drug formulation and nutraceutical.