Background Cellulitis is a common skin disease encountered in medical emergencies in hospitals. It can be treated using a combination of antibiotics therapy; however, the causative agent Staphylococcus aureus has been reported to develop resistance towards the currently used antibiotics. Therefore, the search for more alternative herbal origin antimicrobial agents is critical. Aim: In this study, maceration and Soxhlet extraction of the whole plant of Cassia alata Linn. (leaves, roots, and stem) were performed using four solvents with different polarities, namely n-hexane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and distilled water. The crude extracts were screened using agar well diffusion, colorimetric broth microdilution, grid culture and bacterial growth curve analysis against Staphylococcus aureus. The phytochemicals in the crude extracts were identified using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS). Results Agar-well diffusion analysis revealed that extraction using ethyl acetate showed the largest inhibition zone with an average diameter of 15.30 mm (root Soxhlet extract) followed by 14.70 mm (leaf Soxhlet extract) and 13.70 mm (root maceration extract). The lowest minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentration in root Soxhlet extract using ethyl acetate was 0.313 and 0.625 µg µL−1, respectively. Our study proved that crude extract of the plant suppressed the growth of S. aureus as evidenced from a significant regression extension (p < 0.06, p = 0.00003) of lag phase for 6 h after the treatment with increased concentration. Based on the GC–MS analysis, 88 phytochemicals consist of fatty acids, esters, alkanes, phenols, fatty alcohols, sesquiterpenoids and macrocycle that possibly contributed to the antimicrobial properties were identified, 32 of which were previously characterized for their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. Conclusion Ethyl acetate crude extract was better than the other investigated solvents. The root and stem of C. alata showed significant antimicrobial efficacy against S. aureus in this study. The remaining 56 out of 88 phytochemicals of the plant should be intensively studied for more medicinal uses.

Cassia alata Linn. (Senna alata) or commonly known as “gelenggang” in Malaysia, has been reported to have therapeutic properties and introduced as a resource for traditional remedies for thousand years. Its therapeutic properties were including antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anthelmintic, antilipogenic, antidiabetic, dermatophytic, and anti-hyperlipidemic [1].   In this study, the use of soxhlet extraction and ultrasonic assisted extraction for different parts of C. alata were investigated. For each extraction techniques, the amount of sample, volume of solvent extraction and extraction period were different. Hexane was used as the extraction solvent. The total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and its antioxidant activities were evaluated using Folin-Ciocalteu’s method, aluminum chloride colorimetric assay, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, respectively.    The experimental results showed the highest yield of extract in leaves (4.86±0.24%), stems (0.75±0.09%) and roots (0.59±0.01%) were achieved by using soxhlet extraction technique. The results of TPC and TFC were varied from 0.049±0.004 mg GAE/g DW to 0.185±0.004 mg GAE/g DW and 0.023±0.001 mg QE/g DW to 0.203±0.007 mg QE/g DW, respectively. The highest were recorded from the soxhlet extraction for both of TPC and TFC results. Meanwhile, the radical scavenging activity was the highest from the roots of C. alata, by soxhlet extraction at 21.663±2.097% (60 µg/ml), with the IC50 value at 9.96 µg/ml (Table 1). These findings suggest that the selection of soxhlet extraction as a technique to extract C. alata using hexane was more effective in comparison to ultrasonic assisted extraction. For the further references on the potential of this technique, it is suggested that this study is further analyzed for the identification of its bio-active compounds.