Screenings of Four Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh for Bioactivities

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The methanol extracts of leaves of Nephelium lappaceum L., Pandanus foetidus Roxb., Ludwigia repens Rubin. and the whole plant of Adiantum philippense L. were subjected to assays of antioxidant, cytotoxic, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing activities. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH free radical scavenging activity using butylated hydroxytolune and ascorbic acid as standards. The crude extract of N. lappaccam exhibited the highest free radical scavenging activity (IC 50 = 3.93±0.25µg/ml). On the other hand, the crude methanol extracts of A. philippense and P. foetidus demonstrated significant brine shrimp lethality with LC 50 values 0.50±0.84 µg/ml and 0.58±0.73 µg/ml, respectively as compared to the standard anti-neoplastic drug, vincristine sulfate (LC 50 = 0.45 µg/ml). Weak thrombolytic activity was observed for the test samples. The crude methanol extracts of P. foetidus and N. lappaceum showed 17.31±0.82 % and 17.29±0.91 % clot lysis while standard streptokinase and water, used as positive and negative controls, demonstrated 66.77 % and 3.79 % lysis of clot, respectively. The methanol extract of whole plant of A. philippense inhibited hypotonic solution and heat induced haemolysis of RBCs by 53.09±1.01 % and 35.36±1.60 % as compared to 71.77 % and 42.20 % by acetyl salicylic acid, respectively.

Secondary Metabolites From Different Extractives of Stereospermum suaveolens

“…S. chelonoides DC) provided two new quinones, stereochenols A and B 11 along with sterekunthal B and sterequinone C, previously known from S. kunthianum 12 and S. personatum. 13 As a part of our ongoing research on medicinal plants of Bangladesh, 14,15 we studied S. suaveolens and herein, report seven compounds for the first time from this plant.…”

Alkaloid, Sterol and Triterpenoids from Glycosmis pentaphylla (Retz.) DC

“…5 Its stem has also been reported as a rich source of flavonoids, naphthoquinone and acridone alkaloids. As a part of our continuing studies with medicinal plants of Bangladesh, 6,7 we investigated G. pentaphylla and we, herein, report epi-oleanolic acid (1), β-amyrin (2), spinasterol (3) and arborinine (4) from G. pentaphylla for the first time. …”

Cytotoxic, thrombolytic, membrane stabilizing and anti-oxidant activities of <i>Hygrophila schulli</i>

“…As a part of our ongoing research on medicinal plants of Bangladesh (Haque et al, 2005;Ara et al, 2012;Sikder et al, 2013;Begum et al, 2014), we studied the crude methanol extracts of H. schulli as well as its organic and aqueous soluble fractions for cytotoxic, thrombolytic, membrane stabilizing and anti-oxidant activities for the first time and, herein, report the results of our investigations.…”