title: Cytotoxic, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of extracts of the bark of Melia azedarach (China Berry).
abstract: Nature provides a variety of drugs and medicinal agents derived from plants. This study was conducted to determine antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of extracts of Melia azedarach bark with methanol/water (9:1 v/v), chloroform, butanol, hexane, water and ethyl acetate. For the determination of the antimicrobial activities, the agar well diffusion method was employed. Cytotoxicity was studied by brine shrimp lethality assay; antioxidant activities were measured using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl. The chloroform extract was active against Enterobacter aerogenes and Proteus mirabilis, the ethyl acetate extract had highest antibacterial spectrum against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the n-hexane extract had highest inhibition against E. aerogenes, the aqueous extract showed highest activities against P. mirabilis, the butanol fraction showed highest activities against E. aerogenes and the methanolic extract was highly active against P. mirabilis.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Chemistry , University of Malakand Chakdara Dir (lower) , P.O Box: 18000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zahoor
authors.forename: Manzoor
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Sumaira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naz
authors.forename: Musarrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayaz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001156:Artemia; D031586:Melia azedarach / Q000737:chemistry*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D024301:Plant Bark / Q000737:chemistry; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018675:Toxicity Tests
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000975:Antioxidants; D010936:Plant Extracts
keywords: Melia azedarach; antimicrobial activities; antioxidant activities; bark extract; cytotoxic activities