Antibacterial, antioxidant and brine shrimp lethality activity of latex of pterocarpus indicus (Angsana)

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the brine shrimp lethality bioassay and antioxidant followed by antibacterial activity of the latex of Pterocarpus indicus. The latex showed high cytotoxic activity with LC5o value of 617.65 μg/mL compared to the cytotoxic activity of gallic acid of 451.2 μg/mL. The latex also showed significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.1107 μg/mL as opposed to that of the scavenging effects of ascorbic acid of 4.5 pg μg/mL. Apart from that, the disc diffusion method showed that the latex of Pterocarpus indicus exhibit antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus with their inhibition zones ranging from 7.67 mm to 13.33 mm ± SD. However, it showed no inhibitory effect towards Salmonella sp, Pseudomonas sp and Escherichia coli. The data obtained in the present study suggests that the latex of Pterocarpus indicus have significant cytotoxic activity that can be used in cancer prevention, have potent antioxidant activity against free radicals and also possesses certain antibacterial activity.