Evaluation of the Free Radical Scavenging Activities and Antibacterial Activities of the Extracts of Lindernia ruellioides (Colsmann) Pennell

Abstract

Around the world, plants have been used as medicine to ameliorate a broad spectrum of ailments, leveraging their wealth of phytochemicals. Due to their availability and reasonably priced, plant-based medicines have occasionally supplanted synthetic pharmaceuticals. Lindernia ruellioides, locally called as “Thasuih” in Mizoram has been used by indigenous practitioners and traditional healers for treating various ailments. However, there is no scientific validation for this traditional use. Scientific validation at known doses may provide information about its safety and efficacy. Therefore, the present study endeavours to estimate the phytochemical contents and determine the free radical scavenging activity and antibacterial activity of various extracts of The results were evaluated statistically using SPSS (Online) and Graph pad prism (Online).The plant was washed and allowed to shade dried at room temperature and then powdered. It was then subjected to sequential cold maceration using different solvents such as petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and distilled water. Phytochemical analysis was carried out using standard procedures to identify the constituents. The ability of the extracts to inhibit the generation of various free radicals was determined by assessing the scavenging activity of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH), 2, 2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline- 6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and superoxide radicals. Antibacterial activity was determined using disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration. The results were evaluated statistically using SPSS (Online) and Graph pad prism (Online). The preliminary phytochemical screening disclosed that the plant incorporates an assortment of phytochemicals such as alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, tannins, steroids, glycosides, phlobatannins and terpenoids. Among the various extracts of L. ruellioides, ethanol extract has the highest total phenolic (327.97 ± 1.77 mg GAE/g of dry extract) and flavonoid contents (264.95 ± 0.71 mg quercetin equivalent/g of dry extract). Different extracts of L. ruellioides when analysed for their scavenging activities showed significant inhibition of DPPH, ABTS and superoxide in a concentration dependent manner. The ethanolic extract showed the highest scavenging activities for DPPH and ABTS with IC50 158.0 ± 4.82 μg/ml and 112.9 ± 6.47 μg/ml respectively. However, aqueous extract was found to possess the highest scavenging activity for superoxide with IC50 135.5 ± 5.02 μg/ml. The different extracts were also found to be active against the test microorganisms, thus, justifying the folkloric use of the plant.