Antioxidant, Analgesic and CNS Depressant Activities of Commelina diffusa Burm. f.

Abstract

Commelina diffusa Burm. f. is a member of Commelinaceae family, which is widely
grown in crop land and treated as a weed. This plant has several important medicinal properties which
have not been studied extensively. In this study, the crude powder of C. diffusa whole plant was
extracted with 95% ethanol and different solvent fractions (n-hexane, chloroform and methanol) were
prepared from the crude extract by solvent-solvent partitioning. All these plant samples were subjected
to bioassays for evaluating the antioxidant, central analgesic, peripheral analgesic and CNS depressant
activities. The crude extract and its methanol soluble fraction showed mild free DPPH scavenging
property with IC50 values of 98.49- and 84.77-μg/ml, respectively as compared to the standard ascorbic
acid (IC50 = 2.67 μg/ml). In the analgesic activity test, the n-hexane fraction of C. diffusa at doses of 200-
and 400-mg/kg body weight exhibited significant (p<0.05) central analgesic activity (tail flick test) in
mice. Similarly, all the test samples showed statistically significant (p<0.05) reduction in abdominal
writhing induced by acetic acid. C. diffusa showed significant CNS depressant activity which was
measured by ‘open field test’ and ‘hole cross test’. Considering the potential bioactivities, the plant
materials can be further studied elaborately to explore the activities of the purified compounds to aid in
future drug development.