Antagonistic and antioxidant potencies of Centrosema pubescens benth extracts against nosocomial infection pathogens

The plant Centrosema pubescens that belongs to the Fabaceae family is characterized by herbaceous, twinning, and climbing stem. The main objective of this study is to investigate the phytochemicals of C. pubescens and establish its bioprospection analysis. The preparations of crude extract of leaf stem and flower parts of the samples were done with the Soxhlet apparatus. The solvent extracts of C. pubescens containing different phytochemical contents are investigated for biological activities using the standard procedure. In the HPLC analysis, the active substance is eluted from the extract that shows the best results in nutritional and antioxidant assays among the various solvents. The solvent extracts show rich nutritional parameters. The antimicrobial assay shows that the zone of clearance observed is maximum with value of 15 ± 0.50 mm in the leaf extract. The methanol extract of the leaf shows moderate activity with MIC value of 31.2 μg/ml. The IC50 value of DPPH, ABTS, and phosphomolybdenum assay is found to be 9.8 μg/ml, 10,191.6 ± 1.24 μM TE/g extract, and 56.04 ± 1.19 mg AA/g, respectively. Similarly, the methanol extract of the leaf shows strong antioxidant activity in the ABTS scavenging assay, and in the phosphomolybdenum, superoxide, and reducing power assay. The HPLC chromatograph and LC-MS studies show that quercetin is the active metabolite. This study is a baseline work and can be used in the future for the development of possible novel generation of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The overall result shows that the leaf extracts are better than the stem extracts. •The leaf extract of Centrosema pubescens shows high phenolic contents.•Carbohydrate and starch contents are high in the stem extract.•The methanolic leaf extract is highly effective in controlling pathogens that cause nosocomial infection.•The methanolic leaf extract of C. Pubescens shows strong antioxidant activity.•This study confirms that the extract is rich in compounds that show high antimicrobial and antioxidant activity.