Antibacterial Activity, Chemical Profiling, and Safety Assessment of <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i> L. Extract against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Otitis Media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51412/psnnjp.2026.026Keywords:
Nicotiana, otitis media, Pseudomonas, antibacterial, LC–MS, profilingAbstract
Background: Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) remains an important cause of long-standing ear disease and hearing impairment, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa frequently implicated in persistent infection. This study investigated the chemical constituents, elemental profile, and antibacterial activity of an ethanol extract prepared from Nicotiana tabacum L. leaves against clinical organisms associated with ear infection.
Methods: Authenticated N. tabacum leaves were subjected to cold maceration in ethanol. The resulting extract underwent preliminary phytochemical screening, chromatographic fractionation, GC–MS and LC–MS profiling, and atomic absorption spectrometric analysis for selected elements. Antimicrobial activity was examined by agar-well diffusion against P. aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, and Candida albicans.
Results: The extraction process gave a yield of 2.24% w/w. Screening revealed alkaloids, flavonoids, cyanogenic glycosides, carbohydrates, phenolic constituents, and steroid/triterpenoid compounds. The crude extract inhibited P. aeruginosa in a concentration-related manner, producing zones ranging from 20.00 ± 2.646 mm at 100 μg/mL to 9.67 ± 1.528 mm at 6.25 μg/mL, while the remaining test organisms showed no measurable inhibition. Activity declined markedly after fractionation, with a maximum zone of 4.00 ± 0.44 mm. Atomic absorption analysis detected lead (0.015 mg/L), arsenic (<0.001 mg/L), manganese (0.06 mg/L), and cadmium (0.0023 mg/L); mercury, cobalt, nickel, and copper were not detected. GC–MS produced putative annotations for 16 constituents, mainly esters and fatty-acid-related compounds, whereas LC–MS tentatively assigned 10 metabolites, including nicotine, nornicotine, anabasine, chlorogenic acid, kaempferol, and quercetin.
Conclusion: The ethanol leaf extract of N. tabacum demonstrated selective in-vitro activity against the clinical P. aeruginosa isolate. The weaker activity of the separated fractions compared with the crude extract suggests that interactions among several constituents may contribute to the antibacterial effect.
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