Md. Abdul Kader, Nusrat Yesmin Nipun, GM Masud Parvez and Shumaia Parvin

Objective: Now a days, one of the major public health concerns is the development of antimicrobial resistance to synthetic drugs. Medicinal plants, for their various pharmacological properties considered as important source for drug discovery. Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merr. & L. M. Perry, an ethnomedicinal plant is used traditionally in bronchitis, asthma, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory disorder etc. Very few works have been done on the stem bark of this plant for its biological activities so far. This study investigates the antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of three different solvent extracts of S. samarangense stem bark.
Methods: Three fractionates of S. samarangense stem bark extract were prepared by cold maceration and sequential solvent extraction method using n-hexane, dichloro-methane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) as solvent. In vitro antimicrobial activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and cytotoxic activity were determined by using agar diffusion assay, broth dilution method and brine shrimp lethality test respectively. 
Results: The diameter of inhibition zone ranged from 8.37±0.01 to 19.53±0.02 mm for bacteria and 7.71±0.01 to 13.40±0.01mm for fungi. Among three solvents, the MeOH soluble fractionate of S. samarangense stem bark exhibited largest zone of inhibition to Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi. The MIC values of the plant extracts ranged from 64 to 512 µg / ml. In vitro cytotoxic studies revealed significant lethality of the MeOH extract of the plant to brine shrimps with LC50 30.031 μg / ml compared to the standard. 
Conclusion: The stem bark extract of S. samarangense have demonstrated remarkable antimicrobial and good cytotoxic activities. Thus, it may possibly be a candidate of antibiotic agent in combating infectious diseases. Further study is needed to identify the bioactive phytomolecules for the development of new, and safe drugs against resistant microbes
 

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