Screenings of Four Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh for Bioactivities

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 (IC50= 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 LC50 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 (LC50=
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.