Antimicrobial, antitumor and brine shrimp lethality assay of Ranunculus arvensis L. extracts.

To investigate the antitumor activity, brine shrimp lethality assay, antibacterial and antifungal activity of Methanol Extract (ME), Water Extract (WE), Acetone Extract (AE), Chloroform Extract (CE), Methanol-Water Extract (MWE), Methanol-Acetone Extract (MAE), Methanol-Chloroform Extract (MCE) of Ranunculus arvensis (L.). Antitumor activity was evaluated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (At10) induced potato disc assay. Cytotoxicity was evaluated with brine shrimp lethality assay. Antibacterial activity was evaluated with six bacterial strains including Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Bordetella bronchiseptica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus and Streptococcus anginosus and antifungal screening was done against five fungal strains including Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigates, Fusarium solani and Mucor species by using disc diffusion method. Best antitumor activity was obtained with ME and WE, having highest IC50 values 20.27 ± 1.62 and 93.01 ± 1.33μg/disc. Brine shrimp lethality assay showed LC50 values of AE, MAE and ME were obtained as 384.66 ± 9.42μg/ml, 724.11 ± 8.01μg/ml and 978.7 ±8.01 μg/ml respectively. WE of R. arvensis revealed weak antimicrobial result against the tested microorganisms. On the other hand, the antifungal activity of the plant extracts was found to be insignificant. These findings demonstrate that extracts of R. arvensis possesses significant antitumor activity. Further extensive study is necessary to assess the therapeutic potential of the plant.