Phytochemical Screening and Biological Activity Analysis of Some Selected Medicinal Plants of Ilam District of Nepal

Abstract

Nepal is considered as a natural storehouse of medicinal plants with aromatic and medicinal values, being a land of diverse topography with the different weather conditions. More than 75% of the total population of Nepal relies on the traditional medicines for their primary healthcare and thus it is an important task to explore the chemical constituents and biological activities of plants grown in the local weather. So, we have selected ten medicinal plants as the experimental sample and extracted the contents in methanol by cold percolation method. The phytochemical screening revealed that glycosides, terpenoids, reducing sugars, polyphenols, and quinones were present in most of the plant extracts. In DPPH free radical scavenging test, the extracts of Nephrolepsis auriculata (46.22 μg/ml) and Rumex nepalensis (48.59 μg/ml) showed potent antioxidant activity. The highest total phenolic and total flavonoid contents are found in N. auriculata and R. nepalensis as 1076.73 & 964.56 mg/g GAE and 40.8 & 39.06 mg QE/g, respectively. The extract of Erythrina arborescens depicts significant antibacterial activity against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the methanol extract of Zanthoxylum armatum (6.3 µg/mL) and Heracleum nepalense (88 µg/mL) showed considerable cytotoxicity as their LC50 values were found to be lower than 100 µg/mL. The results endorsed the notion behind the use of traditional medicinal plants to treat various diseases. So, these plant extracts could be used for isolating the bioactive compounds which could be used in the discovery process of noble drugs in the future.

Keywords

• Medicinal plants
• antioxidants
• phenolic
• flavonoids
• antimicrobial

References

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