Cytotoxic, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of extracts of the bark of <i>Melia azedarach</i> (China Berry)

<div><p>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 <i>Melia azedarach</i> 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 <i>Enterobacter aerogenes</i> and <i>Proteus mirabilis</i>, the ethyl acetate extract had highest antibacterial spectrum against <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>, the <i>n</i>-hexane extract had highest inhibition against <i>E. aerogenes</i>, the aqueous extract showed highest activities against <i>P. mirabilis</i>, the butanol fraction showed highest activities against <i>E. aerogenes</i> and the methanolic extract was highly active against <i>P. mirabilis</i>.</p>