| Summary: | <i>Verbesina sphaerocephala</i> A. Gray, like other wild plants of the genus <i>Verbesina</i>, has been used in herbal medicine. There is information for other species of the genus related to their phenolic content, antioxidant capacity, and isolation of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity. However, there are no reports for <i>V. sphaerocephala</i>, although it has an important presence in the state of Michoacán, México. In this study, the phenolic composition, quantification of rutin, and in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial activities of methanolic extracts from <i>V. sphaerocephala</i> leaves and flowers were determined. The results showed that all the investigated extracts have high phenolic and flavonoid contents. The flavonoid rutin was identified in all the extracts from <i>V. sphaerocephala</i> by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). The <i>V. sphaerocephala</i> extracts showed scavenging activity against DPPH<sup>•</sup> and ABTS<sup>•+</sup> radicals (IC<sub>50</sub> and 5.83 ± 0.50 and 0.93 ± 0.01 mg/mL, respectively) as well as relevant antioxidant capacity (51.05 ± 0.36 mg of ascorbic acid/g of dry tissue). The experimental results show that <i>V. sphaerocephala</i> extracts possessed a strong antimicrobial activity against <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> bacteria. This research indicates that <i>V. sphaerocephala</i> could be considered as a potential source of natural compounds from the point of ethnopharmacological usage.
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