Evaluation of antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of Terminalia citrina Leaves

Objective: To investigate antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of methanol extract and its derived fractions (petroleum ether, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate) of leaves of Terminalia citrina plant belonging to the Combretaceae family. Methods: The antioxidant potential were evaluated in terms of total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, DPPH radical scavenging potential, ABTS scavenging potential, reducing power assay and total antioxidant capacity by specific standard procedures. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated using disc diffusion method while cytotoxic was evaluated by using brine shrimp lethality bioassay and compared with vincristine sulfate. Results: The methanolic leaf extract exhibited the highest flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity while ethyl acetate fraction exhibited the highest phenolic content, reducing power, DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity. Antioxidant activity was the most notable compared to the positive control and thus could be a potential rich source of natural antioxidant. In case of antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities, the extracts of the leaves does not showed remarkable activities against tested microorganisms and Artemia salina respectively. Conclusions: This study suggests that the leaves of Terminalia citrina possess antioxidant activity.