Phytochemical Profiling, Antioxidant Potential, Anticancer Activity and Antimicrobial Efficacy of Sequential Solvent Extracts of Morinda citrifolia L. (Noni) Fruit

in traditional medicinal systems across Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Indian subcontinent for the management of pain, inflammation, infections, and malignancies. Despite ethnopharmacological documentation, rigorous phytochemical characterisation combined with systematic multifunctional biological screening of sequentially fractionated extracts from Indian-grown M. citrifolia fruit remains limited. The present study systematically evaluates the phytochemical composition, antioxidant capacity, anticancer activity against human cancer cell lines (MCF-7, A549, HepG2), and antimicrobial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans of four sequentially prepared solvent fractions (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and residual ethanolic extract). Phytochemical screening identified alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, and phenolic glycosides in all fractions, with the ethyl acetate fraction exhibiting the highest total phenolic content (138.4 ± 5.2 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid content (78.3 ± 4.1 mg QE/g). DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays confirm superior antioxidant capacity of the ethyl acetate fraction (DPPH IC₅₀: 28.6 ± 1.4 μg/mL). Anticancer MTT assays demonstrate the ethyl acetate fraction's preferential cytotoxicity toward MCF-7 cells (IC₅₀: 38.4 ± 2.1 μg/mL) with negligible toxicity toward normal Vero cells (>200 μg/mL), indicating selective antiproliferative activity. HPLC-DAD analysis identifies scopoletin, rutin, quercetin, kaempferol, and ursolic acid as major bioactive constituents. Molecular docking of the five principal compounds against EGFR tyrosine kinase (PDB: 1IVO), COX-2 (PDB: 5KIR), and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR, PDB: 1DLS) using AutoDock Vina reveals scopoletin as the highest-affinity ligand for EGFR (ΔG = −8.4 kcal/mol), comparable to the co-crystallised erlotinib reference (ΔG = −8.9 kcal/mol). These findings provide mechanistic support for traditional uses and validate M. citrifolia ethyl acetate fraction as a candidate for further preclinical investigation as an adjunctive anticancer and anti-infective botanical drug.