Biological activities of three medicinal plants from district Mirpur, AJK, Pakistan

Present research work was aimed to investigate the biological activities i.e. antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, cytotoxic and antitumor activities of crude methanolic extract of Anagallis arvensis L., Butea monosperma (Lam.) Kuntze and Coronopus didymus (L.) Pers. against Gram positive strains (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative strains (Vibrio cholera, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumonia, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Escherichia coli) were screened. Best activity was observed against K. pneumonia and S. aureus by A. arvensis compared with other strains. Butea monosperma exhibited considerable activity against S. aureus, V. cholera, E. aerogenes and K. pneumonia compared with other strains. Methanolic extract of A. arvensis L. inhibited fungal growth against A. niger up to 30.2%. B. monosperma inhibited the growth of A. niger up to 43.5% and against A. fumigatus 27.3%. C. didymus inhibited the A. fumigates up to 27.3% and against A. niger, it inhibited 48%. Brine shrimps lethality bioassay was used to evaluate the cytotoxic activity and LD₅₀ value was calculated by using probit analysis. Potato disc bioassay was designed to screen antitumor activity and data was analyzed by one way ANOVA.