In vitro antioxidant, brine shrimp lethality and antimicrobial activities of methanol and petroleum ether extracts of Cassia renigera fruit

Cassia renigera ( C. renigera ) is an evergreen tree (family Caesalpiniaceae) is locally known as Minjiri (Bengali). It is locally used as a medicinal plant. In this study we investigated antioxidant, brine shrimp lethality and antimicrobial activities of the fruit extracts of this plant using different in vitro assay models. Methanol extract showed better activities than petroleum ether extract in total phenol, total flavonoid and total antioxidant capacity assays. Besides, methanol extract also showed higher 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Nitric oxide radical scavenging activities than petroleum ether extract. In cupric reducing and reducing power capacity assays methanol extract exhibited dose dependent reducing capacity. In brine shrimp lethality bioassay petroleum ether extract (LC 50 of 89.385 μg/mL, χ 2 = 215.968, p