Vol. 1, Issue 12 (2013)

Author(s):
Rozina Parul, Sukalayan Kumar Kundu, Pijush Saha

Abstract:
The methanol extracts of three medicinal plants named Phyllunthus freternus,Triumfetta rhomboidae and Casuarina littorea were examined for their possible regulatory effect on nitric oxide (NO) levels using sodium nitroprusside as a NO donor in vitro. Most of the extracts tested demonstrated direct scavenging of NO and exihibited significant activity and the potency of scavenging activity was in the following order: Phyllunthus freternus > Leaves of Triumfetta rhomboidae > Casuarina littorea > barks of Triumfetta rhomboidae > roots of Triumfetta rhomboidae. All the evaluated extracts exhibited a dose dependent NO scavenging activity. The methanolic extracts of Phyllunthus freternus showed the greatest NO scavenging effect of 60.80% at 200 µg/ml with IC₅₀ values 48.27 µg/ml as compared to the positive control ascorbic acid where 96.27% scavenging was observed at similar concentration with IC50 value of 5.47 µg/ml. The maximum NO scavenging of Leaves ofTriumfetta rhomboidae, barks of Triumfetta rhomboidae, roots of Triumfetta rhomboidae andCasuarina littorea were 53.94%, 50.43%, 33.23% and 54.02% with IC₅₀ values 97.81 µg/ml, 196.89 µg/ml, > 200 µg/ml and 168.17 µg/ml respectively. The present results suggest that these plants might be potent and novel therapeutic agents for scavenging of NO and the regulation of pathological conditions caused by excessive generation of NO and its oxidation product.