~ 24 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2016; 5(6): 24-27 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2016; 5(6): 24-27 Received: 05-09-2016 Accepted: 03-10-2016 Shammy Sarwar Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, Stamford University Bangladesh, 51, Siddeswari Road, Dhaka-1217, Bangladesh Ambia Khatun Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, Stamford University Bangladesh, 51, Siddeswari Road, Dhaka-1217, Bangladesh Kamrun Nahar Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, Stamford University Bangladesh, 51, Siddeswari Road, Dhaka-1217, Bangladesh Muhammad Ashikur Rahman Department of Pharmacy, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh Correspondence Shammy Sarwar Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacy Stamford University Bangladesh Phytochemical screening, Cytotoxic and Anthelmintic activities of the methanolic leaf extract of Terminalia catappa Linn Shammy Sarwar, Ambia Khatun, Kamrun Nahar and Muhammad Ashikur Rahman Abstract The present study is aimed to evaluate phytochemical screening, cytotoxic activity and anthelmintic activity of methanolic extract of Terminalia catapa leaves. Phytochemical properties of different extractives of plant materials were tested. Anthelmintic activity was assessed applying three different concentrations of the plant extract and recording the time of paralysis and death. While brine shrimp lethality test (BSLT) method was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the plant extract, where vincristine sulphate and DMSO was used as positive and negative control respectively. The phytochemical screening revealed the potent source of different phytochemical constituents on different extractives including alkaloid, glycosides, tannin, saponins, flavonoids, steroids and carbohydrate. In case of cytotoxicity measurement, the crude methanolic extract showed positive result (with LC50 1.4 μg/ml) compared to standard Vincristine sulphate (0.35 μg/ml); which indicated that the leaves of T. catappa possess mild cytotoxic principles. An elaborate study was carried out on the anthelmintic potential of methanolic extract of T. catappa where Albendazole as a reference standard. The lowest time for paralysis and death of worms, for test sample at highest concentration (100mg/ml) and standard drug were found 34.09±0.44 and 50.04±0.09 min respectively, which gradually increased with the decrease of concentration. Results showed a dose dependent increase in the anthelmintic activity. Therefore, further studies are suggested to evaluate the possible mechanism of action and the active compounds responsible for the biological activities of the plant extract. Keywords: Terminalia catapa, Phytochemical screening, Cytotoxic activity and Anthelmintic activity. Introduction Traditional medicine has been practiced for many centuries in many parts of the world, including India especially in rural areas due to availability and low cost. Nature has provided a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and an impressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources, many based on their use in traditional medicine [1] . About 80% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine for significant part of their primary health care needs [2] . Extraction of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants allows the demonstration of their physiological activity. It also facilitates pharmacology studies leading to synthesis of a more potent drug with reduced toxicity [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] . In this study Terminalia catappa (Combretaceae) also known as Indian almond, a tall deciduous and erect tree reaching a height of 15-25m,all parts of which(leaves, bark, roots and fruits) are useful in traditional medicine for the treatment of wounds and ulcerations, boils and some bacterial infections with which the test organisms are associated is used [7, 8, 9] . It has been reported that extracts of T. catappa leaves show antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective actions and contains hydrolysable tannins or triterpenoids [8, 10, 11, 12] . This study therefore seeks to examine the antibacterial potency of the ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts of Terminalia catappa, against some selected clinically important bacteria, the minimum effective concentration and determine the phytochemical components of the medicinal plant. Coupled with our continuous interest of pharmacological screening of Bangladeshi medicinal plants, in this study we aimed to investigate phytochemical screening, cytotoxic and anthelmintic activities of the methanolic extract of Terminalia catappa. Materials and Methods Plant material The leaves of T. catapa were collected from Dhaka on September, 2015. After collection leaves were thoroughly washed with water and identified by expert of Bangladesh National