In vitro antimitotic, antiproliferative and antioxidant activity of stem bark extracts of Ficus benghalensis L.

In vitro antimitotic, antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of stem bark extracts of Ficus benghalensis were evaluated as a preliminary study for anticancer activity using Allium cepa root tip assay and yeast cell model respectively. The crude methanol extract and subsequent solvent fractions were employed in the study. In antimitotic assay, the n-butanol fraction showed strongest antimitotic activity with mitotic index of 28 ± 0.577% at 4 mg/mL concentration. The extracts also caused chromosomal and mitotic aberrations including accumulation of prophases, sticky chromosomes at metaphase, spindle disturbance at prophase and anaphase bridges. In antiproliferative assay, strongest antiproliferative activity was determined for n-butanol fraction with only 8 ± 0.577% viable cells at 4 mg/mL. The antioxidant activity ranged between 21.42 ± 0.457 to 82.6 ± 2.395% DPPH inhibition at tested concentrations for different plant extracts with highest antioxidant activity observed for crude methanol extract and lowest for aqueous fraction. The study concluded that the stem bark of F. benghalensis can be used as a source of biologically active compounds with antimitotic, antiproliferative and antioxidant activities.