Antioxidant Potential of Zephyranthes citrina Seed Extract in Saccharomyces cerevisiae’s Oxidative Stress Response System

Abstract

To investigate the in vitro and in vivo antioxidant and antidiabetic activity of Zephyranthes citrina seeds belonging to the family Amaryllidaceae. Successive extraction was carried out using butanol and methanol as solvent systems. Various phytochemicals were screened for alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, steroids, etc. In vitro, antioxidant properties were evaluated using the Diphenyl picryl hydroxyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method and reducing power assay, and in vivo antioxidant and antidiabetic testing was done by using yeast cells. Methanolic extract of Z. citrina showed potent scavenging activity by the DPPH method around 83.72% activity at a concentration of 5 mg/mL. The reducing power activity of the extracts was evaluated using ferro cyanide as substrate, this shows how efficiently Fe3+ converts to Fe2+ in the presence of extract. In vivo, the antioxidant capacity of the methanol extract of Z. citrina was tested using stress-deficient antioxidant mutants that had high homology to humans such as superoxide dismutase (sod1∆,), and catalase (cta1∆) in growth recovery assays. Methanol extract of Z. citrina seeds pretreatment exposed to hydrogen peroxide showed a two-fold increase in the viability of antioxidant mutant strains cta1∆ (76.72%) and sod1∆ (78.27%). The glucose uptake by yeast (S. cerevisiae) was significantly higher in all groups tested compared to the control. The plant extract with 500µg concentration showed the maximum inhibition activity i.e., 54.54%.