Antioxidant, Antibacterial Activities and General Toxicity of Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus excelsior and Papaver rhoeas

Alnus glut i nosa, fraxinus excelsior and papaver rhoeas have long been used in folkloricmedicine for the treatment of various ailments. as part of our continuing screening of plantextracts for biological activities, the extracts of a. glu tinosa, f excelsior and p rhoeashave been screened for their antioxidant and antibac terial activit ies, as well as their generaltoxicity towards brine shrimps. among the extracts, the methanol (meoh) extract of fexcelsior displayed the highest level of antioxidant activity (rc50= 1.35x 10-2 rng/ml.) and thedichloromethane (dcm) extract of p rhoeas was the most toxic extract towards brine shrimps(ld50=2.4x10-2 mg/ml.). the n-hexane and dcm extracts of f excelsior and the meohextract of a. glutinosa were active (mic values were within 1.25x i0-1 and 1.00 mg/ml)against al l 8 bacterial species tested, including methicillin-resistant staphylo coccus aureus(mrsa).