Profile of antioxidant and antibacterial activities of different solvent extracts from Rabdosia rubescens

The objective of this work was to investigate the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of different extracts from Rabdosia rubescens and to further evaluate the antibacterial mechanism of extracts. The results showed that 80% acetone extracts had the highest contents of total polyphenols (8.09 mg GAE g⁻¹) and flavonoids (5.69 mg RE g⁻¹) and exhibited the strongest antioxidant activities, followed by 80% methanol and 80% ethanol, and the lowest for hexane extracts. Others except for hexane extracts showed different antibacterial activities against Gram‐positive strains, while no inhibitory effects were found on tested Gram‐negative bacterial strains. Among these extracts, 80% acetone and ethanol extracts had relatively higher antibacterial activities with the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration values of 5 and 10 mg mL⁻¹. The antibacterial mechanism of ethanol extracts against Staphylococcus aureus might be described as it disrupts cell wall, increases cell membrane permeability and then leads to the leakage of cell constituents.