Development of quality standards and pharmacological evaluation of some medicinal plants with specific reference to antioxidant and nephroprotective activities

Abstract

The aim of this study was to developed quality standards and to screen the therapeutic effects of methanolic extracts of Lepidium sativum , Cichorium intybus seeds and Aegle marmelos leaves using cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity model.The quality standards for all three selected plants were developed according to WHO guidelines and results were found to be comparable with Pharmacopoeial standards. Quercetin and rutin in methanolic extracts were quantified by HPTLC technique and a good resolution was observed with Rf value 0.53 and 0.89 for quercetin and rutin respectively. The total phenolic and flavanoid contents of methanolic extract for selected plant parts were determined and the higher value was observed for C.intybus seed extract. The in vitro antioxidant potential was evaluated by different scavenging methods and it was observed that methanolic C.intybus seeds extract showed free radical scavenging activity with IC50 of 64 µg/ml which was comparable with standard ascorbic acid IC 50 51.45 µg/ml. The extracts of other plants also showed good antioxidants activity in all tested methods. OPAA primers were used for RAPD analysis of all the selected plants. Analysis of five accessions of tested samples revealed polymorphism. The total 177, 121 and126 bands of C. Intybus, A .marmelos and L. sativum respectively were marked for the 10 RAPD primers. Out of which 12, 28 and 38 bands were monomorphic for C. Intybus, A .marmelos and L. sativum respectively. Acute toxicity studies were carried out according to OECD 423 guidelines and methanolic extract of all the selected plants were found to be non toxic and nonlethal upto 3000mg/kg B.W. In case of nephroprotective activity evaluation methanolic extracts of C.intybus at a dose of 300 and 600mg/kg showed more potent nephroprotective activity against Cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity