Preliminary Screening of Anti-Microbial, Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Cancer Potential of Butea monosperma Flower Extracts

Cancer an aggressive killer, even though there is a lot of development in cures and preventative therapies occur at global level still there is a need to develop effective, and affordable anticancer drugs. Butea monosperma, sacred tree, rich with various phyto constituents used as antimicrobial, anti-fertility, anticonvulsive, anti-helminthic, anti-diarrhoeal, wound healing, hepatoprotection, anti-hypertenstive, antitumor, anti-diabetic, and anti-inflammatory. In the present study, ethyl acetate, chloroform and methanol extracts of Butea monosperma flowers were screened for anti-microbial (agar well diffusion method), anti-oxidant (DPPH and TPC assay) and anti-cancer (MTT assay) activities. Among the three extracts, Ethyl acetate extract showed highest anti-bacterial (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, E. Coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), anti fungal (Aspergillus niger), anti-oxidant (DPPH with IC5029.64), total phenolic content (90.35mg GAE/g) and cyto-toxicity against MCF-7 cell lines (IC50-24.150μg/mL), while methanol extract exhibited highest anti-fungal activity (Candida albicans) and cyto-toxicity against A-549 cell lines (IC50-15.288μg/mL). Whereas the chloroform extract relatively exhibited less activity compared to the other two extracts. These results clearly indicate that Butea monosperma flowers possess valuable phytochemicals to treat various diseases.