Objective: The medicinal plants have been using to treat ailments since ancient times. The recent advances in science and technology impel humans to evaluate medicinal plants therapeutic efficiency and isolation of bioactive compounds in pure forms before their use in development of new drugs and their derivatives. But even now, abundant medicinal plants unevaluated scientifically. The current study was aimed to explore phytochemical constituents, antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of Actiniopteris radiata root parts.
Methods: Standard procedures have been used to perform phytochemical analysis. Antioxidant activity was carried using In vitro methods on superoxide, hydroxyl, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals. Hepatoprotective activity was studied by paracetamol-induced liver toxicity on WISTAR albino rats. The parameters assessed were Aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT/AST), Alanine aminotransferase (SGPT/ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin levels.
Results: The tested extracts (hexane, ethyl acetate, and hydro-alcoholic) possess biologically active compounds such as sterols, terpenoids, glycosides, phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids. The hydro-alcoholic extract has more phenolic contents (24.28±0.3) and flavonoid contents (22.68±0.6). The extracts showed dose dependent activity on tested free radicals and extracts showed more percentage inhibition at 320µg. The hydro-alcoholic extract showed more percentage inhibition i.e. 71.00±2.08 on DPPH free radical, 79.67±1.20 on hydroxyl free radical and 80.33±1.20 on superoxide free radical. As antioxidant activity of hexane and ethyl acetate extracts was less and they also showed less percentage protection on liver toxicity, hydro-alcoholic extract showed more percentage protection on biomedical enzyme levels of liver toxicity at high concentration i.e., 400 mg/kg b.w. The percentage protection on the enhancement of AST (SGOT), ALT (SGPT), ALP, and total bilirubin levels were 82.24%, 82.14%, 84.18%, and 82.85% are significant (P<0.01) as Liv52 shown percentage protection on the enhancement of Aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT), alanine aminotransferase (SGPT), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin levels were 93.58%, 92.83%, 94.67% and 93.57%.
Conclusion: The current study was aimed to explore phytochemical constituents, antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of Actiniopteris radiata root parts extracts. The outcome of the current research results provides scientific evidence of the traditional usage of Actiniopteris radiata.