Indigofera hirsuta Linn. (Leguminosae) is a well-known plant used in African traditional medicine as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiulcer, anti-venom and anticonvulsant.
The air-dried aerial parts of I. hirsuta was extracted with using a soxhlet extractor and fractionated into ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol (n-BuOH) and aqueous fractions (AF).
The n-butanol soluble fraction when subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, phenolic compounds, saponins and tannins.
Repeated gel filtration of n-butanol soluble fraction over a Sephadex LH-20 column eluted with methanol followed by preparative thin-layer Chromatography resulted in the isolation of two flavonol glycosides (Kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and Kaempferol-7-O-β-D- glucopyranoside).
The structures of these compounds were elucidated using chemical tests, spectroscopic techniques (UV, FTIR, 1D and 2D-NMR), and by comparison with reference spectral data.
The n-butanol soluble fraction was found to have intraperitoneal LD50 of 1264.91 mg/kg in rats.
Anti-inflammatory study using carrageenan-induced paw oedema in rats indicated that, the significantly (p<0.05) inhibited the paw oedema at doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg.
Introduction
1.1 Background of Study
The use of plants in the treatment of various ailments predates modern civilization and medicine (Adiomoelja, 2000).
Medicinal exhibit valuable , including, , anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, antibacterial, and antiviral activities (Kumar et al., 2011).
Medicinal plants have become the main target of chemists, biochemists, and pharmacists in the development and discovery of new drugs (Samart, 2007).
Plants play a significant role in the discovery of leads for the development of drugs. Natural product-derived compounds represent great structural diversity, which is not commonly seen in synthetic compounds (Jachak and Saklani, 2007).
Of the 1184 new chemical compounds reported during 1981 to 2006, 60% were obtained from plants (Gautam and Jachak, 2009).
Plants have been used as sources of potent therapeutic agents including: quinine (i) and quinidine (ii) two alkaloids isolated from the bark of cinchona plant that have been used for ages in the management of malaria (Borris, 1996).
References
Abubakar, M.S., Balogun, E., Abdurrahman, E.M., Nok A.J., Shok, M., Mohammed, A. and Garba, M. (2006). Ethnomedical treatment of poisonous snakebites: Plant extract neutralized Naja nigricollis venom. Pharmaceutical Biology, 44 (5): 343-348.
Abubakar, M.S., Musa, A.M., Ahmed, A. and Husaini, I.M. (2007).The perception and practice of traditional medicine in the treatment of cancers and inflammations by the Hausa and Fulani tribes of Northern Nigeria. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 111(3):625-629.
Adamu, H.M., Abayeh, O.J., Agbo, M.O., Abdullahi, A.L., Uba, A., Dukku, H.U. and Wufem,B.M. (2005). An ethnobotanical survey of Bauchi State herbal plants and their antimicrobial activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 99: 1-4.
Adiomoelja, A. (2000). Phytochemicals and the breakthrough of traditional herbs in the management of sexual dysfunction. International Journal of Androl; 23(Supplementary. 2): 82-4.
Al-Awadh Ali, N.A., Julich, W.D., Kusmik, C. and Lendequist, U. (2001). Screening of Yemeni medicinal plants for anti-bacterial and cytotoxic activities. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 74, 173-179.
Ali, A.N., Attif, O.A. and Mohammed, M.I. (1999). Herbal medicine in two Yemen Provinces.Yemen medical Journal, 3: 13-20.
Be the first to comment