Phytochemical Screening, Cytotoxicity, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Stem and Leave Extracts of Euphorbia Heterophylla

Phytochemical screening carried out on the stem and leave extracts of Euphorbia heterophylla (Euphorbieacea) confirmed the presence of Carbohydrates, gycosides, reducing sugar, saponins, taninns, phlobatanins, cardiac glycosides, steroids, triterpenes, and flavonoid. cytotoxicity test using brine shrimp lethality assay gave the LC50 value ( mu g/cm3 ) are 20.67, 25.07, 158.56,and 176.55 for n-Hexane fraction, Ethyl Acetate fraction, Butanol fraction and Aqueous fraction of the stem while 23.50, 30.20, 164.10 and 179.80 for n-hexane fraction, Ethyl Acetate fraction, Butanol fraction and Aqueous fraction of the leave extracts. The results of antioxidant properties of the stem and leaves extracts showed that the extracts exhibited strong activity as a radical scavenger in the experiment using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl radical (DPPH) indicating that the plant has strong ability to donate hydrogen when compared with the standard butyrate hydroxyl anisole (BHA). The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was carried out against Staphylococcus aureus, E.coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pneumonia, and Candida albicans, the results showed moderate to low activity for the test organisms.