ABSTRACT
Taraxacum officinale L is a medicinal plant, which has enormous medicinal values against various types of liver disorders and it has traditionally been used for the treatment of liver problems by people from the South East Asia. Previously we have screened the crude methanolic extract of T. officinale against cytotoxicity induced by CCl[4].Present study was designed to compare the protective effect of ethanolic and n-hexane extract of leaves in carbon tetrachloride [CCl[4]] induced liver toxicity in rats. The extract [200 mg/kg and 400mg/kg body weight] along with silymarin [100 mg/kg] a standard drug was administered to experimental animals. It was observed that ethanolic plant extract has significantly reduced the negative effect of CCl[4] as compared to n-hexane extract and effect of extract was increased with increasing dose level. Although both leaf extracts decreased the concentration of TBARS, H[2]O[2] and nitrite contents which enhance due to CCl[4] toxicity but effect was higher in ethanolic extract. The results clearly indicated that Taraxacum officinale ethanolic leaves extract has better protective effect against CCl[4] induced liver tissues toxicity. This claim was also supported by histopathological results obtained during this study and this might be due to presence of various polar phytochemicals that might be more prevent in this extract
ABSTRACT
Euphorbia wallichii a perennial herb growing mainly in Himalayas has been widely used in folk medicines for its medicinal properties. In the present study, the crude methanolic root extract [CME] and its fractions; n-Hexane Fraction [NHF], n-Butanol Fraction [NBF], Chloroform Fraction [CHF], Ethyl acetate Fraction [EAF] and Aqueous Fraction [AQF] of this plant specie were investigated for antioxidant and cytotoxic activities and phytochemical analysis. Antioxidant activity was determined by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl free radical [DPPH] and DNA protection assay performed on pBR322 plasmid DNA. In both these assays, promising results were obtained for CME as well as other fractions. The IC[50] values for DPPH assay were in a range of 7.89 to 63.35 mocrog/ml in which EAF showed the best anti-oxidant potential and almost all the tested samples showed certain level of DNA protection. The cytotoxic activity was assessed by using Sulforhodamine B [SRB] assay on human cell lines; H157 [Lung Carcinoma] and HT144 [Malignant Melanoma]. The IC[50] values of the tested samples ranged from 0.18 to 1.4 mg/mL against H157 cell line whereas against HT144 cell line the IC[50] values ranged from 0.46 to 17.88 mg/mL with NBF fraction showing maximum potential for both. Furthermore, the phytochemical analysis of CME and its fractions showed the presences of flavonoids, saponins, tannins, terpenoides and cardiac glycosides with varying concentrations