Antioxidant and cytotoxicity activity of Cordia africana in Sudan Emtinan A. Alhadi*, Hassan S. Khalid, Muddathir S. Alhassan, Afra A. Ali, Salwa G. Babiker, Eman M. Zain Alabdeen and Ahmed S. Kabbashi Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Traditional Medicine Research Institute (MAPTMRI), P.O. Box 2404, National Center for Research, Khartoum, Sudan. Accepted 1 April, 2015 ABSTRACT Cordia africana Lam. (family- Boraginaceae) is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree, 4 to 15 (30) m high, heavily branched with a spreading, umbrella-shaped or rounded crown. Bole typically curved or crooked. Bark grayish-brown to dark brown, smooth in young trees, but soon becoming rough and longitudinally fissured with age; young branchlets with sparse long. Uses of C. africana: firewood, timber (furniture, beehives, boxes, mortars, church, drums), food (fruit), medicine (bark, roots), fodder (leaves), bee forage, mulch, soil conservation, ornamental, shade. The present study was conducted to investigate the in-vitro antioxidant (DPPH assay) and cytotoxic (brine shrimp) of different parts (leaves, stem, park and fruit) of C. africana. The different parts of C. africana was screened for antioxidant screening for their free radical scavenging properties using 2.2Di (4-tert-octylphenyl)-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), while propyl galate was used as standard antioxidant and screened for their cytotoxicity using brine shrimp. The inhibition percentage of antioxidant against (DPPH assay) varied from (37 ± 0.10 to 95 ± 0.00% RSA). The test of cytotoxicity was done using brine shrimp lethality, verified the toxic extracts except stem by water and leaves by methanol and water extracts. This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity (brine shrimp) of C. africana. Keywords: Cordia africana, antioxidant activity, brine shrimp. *Corresponding author. E-mail: emtinanelbsher@gmail.com. INTRODUCTION Natural products are generally either of prebiotic origin or originated from microbes, plants, or animal sources (Nakanishi, 1999). As chemicals, natural products include classes of compounds such as terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, polyketides, amino acids, peptides, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acid bases, ribonucleic acid (RNA), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and so forth (Jarvis, 2000). Medicinal plants are plants or plant parts or its exudates having medicinal properties. In fact, it is the chemical constituents in plants that yield the medicinal prosperities (Maryum, 2004). Like other developing countries, Sudanese traditional medicine represents a unique blend of indigenous cultures with Islamic, Arabic and African traditions. Consequently, a variety of diseases –epidemic and endemic – are known. To face them, people have tapped the environmental resources, e.g. plants, minerals and animal products for the management of health (El- Hamidi, 1970; Banthorpe et al., 1976; Antoun et al., 1977; Antoun and Taha, 1981; El Sheikh et al., 1982). Herbal drugs are of major importance in Sudanese traditional medicine. Floristic studies (Bruno and Massey, 1929; Andrews, 1950, 1952, 1956; El Amin, 1990) in Sudan revealed that more than 3156 species belonging to 1137 genera and 170 families exist. The documentation of medicinal plants of Sudan was performed by Medicinal and Aromatic plants Research Institute (MAPRI), where the medicinal plants of certain districts were published; Erkawit, Nuba Mountains, White Nile, North kordofan, and of Angasana (El Ghazali, 1986; El Ghazali et al., 1987, 1994, 1997, 2003). Advancement in Medicinal Plant Research Vol. 3(2), pp. 29-32, April 2015 ISSN: 2354-2152 Full Length Research Paper