Lycopene augments and enhances anti-oxidant/antibacterial efficiency of ethanolic leaf extract of Helianthus annuus over multidrug-resistant bacterial isolates

Lycopene, the potential antioxidant naturally occurring in red carotenoid pigment is found in many fruits and vegetables. In this work, antioxidant power and antimicrobial potentials of lycopene against the multidrug-resistant (MDR) Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) and Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes) were studied when added to ethanolic leaf extracts of Helianthus annuus (H. annuus). Supplementation of the lycopene along with ethanolic leaf extract of H. annuus indicates a 30 % enhancement in the antioxidant activity by 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and reduction of 24 % reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human fibroblast cells under calcium stress compared to leaf extract alone. The antibacterial activity of the leaf extract + lycopene showed improved bacterial inhibition as low as 40 and 70 μg of the leaf extract compared with extract alone against S. pyogenes and S. agalactiae respectively. Taken together, the observations show that the natural anti-oxidant, lycopene, when added to the extract enhanced the antibacterial activity at lower concentrations which could possibly reduce the larger dose as observed in alternative or complementary medical practices.