Abstract

Comparative antioxidant, antibacterial activities and general toxicity studies on the n-hexane, dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) extracts of Mimosa pudica and Mimosa rubicaulis, two Bangladeshi medicinal plants, were carried out, using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay, the resazurin microtitre plate based assay, and the brine shrimp lethality assay, respectively. The DCM and MeOH extracts of both M. pudica and M. rubicaulis showed prominent antioxidant property, with the RC50 values ranging from 4.70 x 10(-1) to 2.10 x 10(-2) mg/mL. While M. rubicaulis did not show any antibacterial activity, the DCM and the MeOH extracts of M. pudica displayed considerable bacteriostatic activity against all six bacterial strains (MIC range = 0.625-2.50 mg/mL) including Bacillus cereus, B. subtilis, Escherichia coli, ampicillin-resistant Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. None of these plants exhibited any significant toxicity towards brine shrimps.