Medicinal properties of Euphorbia tirucalli  L. have been investigated in vitro. Water extract from the plant latex was freeze dried and tested against 3 digestive enzymes and showed IC50 as 39.8±0.22, 79.43±0.38 and 316.22±0.3 for lipase, alpha- glucosidase and alpha- amylase, respectively. These results were incomparable with drugs such as acarbose and orlistat. Antioxidant property showed that the IC50 values of E. tirucalli and Trolox were 79.43±0.69 and 3.1 ±0.92 respectively. Also, the plant extract exhibited a range of antimicrobial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and pathogenic yeast and fungi. Cytotoxicity of the plant extract tested on Caco-2 cells was determined using MTT method. The effect was linear and almost 0.5 mg/ml extract has inhibited 50% of cells relative to the control. Euphorbia tirucalli showed promising activities and is potential source of active ingredient with functional properties.

Antioxidant, anti-enzymatic, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of Euphorbia tirucalli L.