Juglans regia (walnut tree) belong to Juglandaceae family the Juglans Genus, that is widely used in traditional medicine for its therapeutic effects. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the in-vitro antifungal and antioxidant activity of ethanolic extracts prepared from Juglans regia bark using maceration and soxhelt methods and to determine the total phenolic compounds of the prepared extract.
The antifungal activity was evaluated against three strains of Candida albicans. The antioxidant activity was investigated using the DPPH and FRAP methods. Total phenolic compounds was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteau method.
The results of the antifungal activity study showed that Juglans regia bark ethanolic extracts were active against the three tested Candida albicans yeast strains with interesting MICs values (0.078 mg/ml). For both extract under study, the obtained results revealed appreciable radical scavenging activity with IC50 of less than 0.02mg/ml, which remains below that of BHT (1.16 mg/ml) and vitamin C (0.048 mg/ml). While for the total phenolic compounds determination, the obtained results revealed a remarkable richness of the various extracts in total polyphenols whose content varies between 258 and 285 mg EAG/g of extract.
The obtained data confirmed the correlation between the total phenolic compounds and biological activities of medicinal plants extract. In addition, Juglans regia bark extracts demonstrate notable antifungal activity, which explains their use in traditional medicine and making them suitable for use in pharmaceutical preparations.
