Cytotoxic, thrombolytic, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Cocos nucifera linn. endocarp extracts

Abstract

Different partitionates of methanol extract of Cocos nucifera Linn. were subjected to screening for cytotoxic, thrombolytic, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Cytotoxicity was determined using brine shrimp nauplii in which vincristine sulfate was used as positive control and gave LC₅₀ of 0.45±0.08 mg/ml. Among the partitionates, carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction demonstrated the highest cytotoxic activity (LC₅₀ value of 0.82±0.19 mg/ml). While assaying for thrombolytic activity, the petroleum ether soluble fraction demonstrated highest thrombolytic activity (37.44±0.33%) compared to the standard streptokinase (66.76±0.03%). In total phenolic content assay, the highest amount of phenolic compounds was found in the crude methanol extract (113.94±2.01 mg of GAE/g of sample). In antioxidant assay, crude methanol extract (IC₅₀ value of 4.39±0.69 μg/ml) showed maximum free radical scavenging activity whereas reference standards tert-butyl-1-hydroxytoluene and ascorbic acid gave IC₅₀ values of 27.50±0.95 μg/ml and 5.80±1.03 μg/ml, respectively. In antimicrobial screening, the crude methanol extract and its carbon tetrachloride and chloroform soluble fractions exhibited mild zone of inhibition against the test organisms.