Plants were used as medicines thousands of
years ago. Conventional medicine use is increasing and
many of the currently used drugs are extracted from herbal
sources. In Palestinian traditional medicine, the Alhagi
mannifera plant is used for the treatment of cancer. Our
study aimed to extract this plant using five solvent fractions,
identifying their chemical compositions, and evaluating
their antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects.
Methods: The successive technique was used to extract five
solvent fractions of A. mannifera. While the spectral analysis
was used to characterize quantitatively and qualitatively the
chemical components of these extracts. The antimicrobial activity
of plant extracts was evaluated against seven microbial
strains using a broth micro-dilution assay. The cytotoxic activity
was assessed using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-
(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium
(MTS) assay against cervical cancer cell line (HeLa).