Antibacterial, cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of chloroform, n-hexane and ethyl acetate extract of plant Coccinia cordifolia

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to find out the antibacterial, cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of chloroform, n-hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of Coccinia cordifolia (Family: Cucurbitaceae). Disc diffusion technique was used for in vitro antibacterial screening against gram positive and gram negative human pathogenic bacteria. Here kanamycin disc (30g/disc) was used as standard. The chloroform extract of Coccinia cordifolia showed good antibacterial activity with the average zone of inhibition 9-12mm. The n-hexane and ethyl acetate extract showed average zone of inhibition 7-10mm and 7-11mm respectively. The Brine shrimp lethality bioassay method was used to determine the cytotoxic activity and vincristine sulphate was used as positive control. The LC50 values of standard vincristine sulphate, chloroform, n-hexane and ethyl acetate extract were 7.55μg/ml, 23.96 μg/ml, 14.12 μg/ml & 15.49 μg/ml respectively which indicate the plants extracts compounds are promisingly cytotoxic and they might have antitumer and pesticidal activity. Among the extracts the chloroform extract showed the highest cytotoxic activity with LC50 23.96 μg/ml. Antioxidant activity test of the crude extracts were assessed by means of DPPH free radical scavenging method where ascorbic acid was used as standard with IC50 43.22 μg/ml. The ethyl acetate fraction of Coccinia cordifolia showed strongest antioxidant activity with IC50 value of 50.98 μg/ml.