Evaluation of in vitro antibacterial and in vivo cytotoxic activities of Bangladeshi Coffea benghalensis B Heyne ex Schult. roots

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial and in vivo cytotoxic activity of the roots of Bangladeshi Coffea benghalensis B Heyne ex Schult. (Family: Rubiaceae), locally known as bonnyo kofee native to the regions of Sylhet and Chittagong in Bangladesh. The finely crushed coarse powder was extracted with methanol and solvent-solvent partitioning was done to obtain n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous soluble fractions. The crude methanol extract along with it’s four soluble fractions were then evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial and in vivo cytotoxic activities. The disc diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity at a concentration of 200 and 400 μg/disc. All the soluble fractions and the crude methanolic extract did not demonstrate any zone of inhibition. In case of brine shrimp lethality bioassay, all the test samples exhibited cytotoxic activity against brine shrimp nauplii having remarkable LC50 and LC90 values. The n-hexane soluble materials demonstrated highest lethality with LC50 value of 6.84 ± 0.87 μg/ml and LC90 59.86 ± 0.83 μg/ml in contrast to the standard vincristine sulphate. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate the antibacterial activity. These findings indicates that the roots of the plant contains cytotoxic bioactive compounds but advanced research is necessary to elucidate the cytotoxic bioactive compounds. Other techniques are also required to assess the antibacterial activity of the plant.