ABSTRACT
Aims: To investigate cytotoxic, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing activities of methanol extract and its different Kupchan partitionates of flowers of Swietenia mahagoni. Study Design: Evaluation of cytotoxic activity using brine shrimp nauplii, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing activities on human RBCs. Place and Duration of Study: Phytochemical Research Laboratory, Department of Pharmacy, School of Health Science, State University of Bangladesh, from April to September, 2013. Methodology: The eggs of brine shrimp nauplii were hatched in artificial sea water for 24 hours. Cytotoxic activity was determined by measuring the percentage of their mortality after application of different partitionates to them. Human RBCs were obtained from 3 healthy volunteers. Thrombolytic activity was calculated by weighing the clot before and after addition of different partitionates while membrane stabilizing activity was evaluated in terms of inhibition of percentage of haemolysis of RBCs by measuring optical density in both hypotonic and heat induced conditions. Results: The highest cytotoxic activity was achieved with the crude methanol extract (LC50 = 0.10±0.01 mg/ml) among the partitionates while vincristine sulfate, the positive control, achieved an LC50 value of 0.40±0.02 mg/ml. While investigating thrombolytic activity, the petroleum ether soluble fraction achieved the highest clot lysis activity (34.30±0.78%) compared to the standard streptokinase (70.27±1.26%). While determining the membrane stabilizing activity, in hypotonic solution induced condition, the crude methanol extract inhibited 84.71±3.25% haemolysis of RBCs whereas in heat induced condition, the aqueous soluble fraction inhibited 86.30±4.98% haemolysis of human RBCs. Here, acetyl salicylic acid (0.01mg/ml) used as reference standard showed 71.91±2.29% and 45.45±4.87% inhibition of haemolysis of human RBCs in hypotonic solution and heat induced conditions, respectively. Conclusion: From our investigation, it can be suggested that, the flower extractives can further be studied extensively to find out their efficacy.
ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of syndromes characterized by an elevation of blood glucose caused by a relative or absolute deficiency of insulin. The incidence of diabetes is growing rapidly worldwide. Drug treatment for diabetes mellitus is expensive and carries risks for many adverse effects. Bangladesh is a rich emporium of medicinal plants useful in the treatment of diabetes. The study was performed to investigate the blood glucose lowering effect of Swietenia mahagoni seeds in experimentally induced diabetic rats. Twenty four healthy Long Evans Norwegian strain of rats were included in the study and divided into four groups (A, B, C and D) comprising 6 rats each. Diabetes was induced by alloxan (120 mg/kg body weight). Administration of ethanolic extract of Swietenia mahagoni seeds (group-B) produced no significant change in the blood glucose level as compared to control (group-A). Administration of ethanolic extract of Swietenia mahagoni seeds in group-D produced a significant reduction in blood glucose level as compared to diabetic control (group-C). Histological examination of pancreas showed destruction of beta cells in Islets of pancreas in group-C whereas retaining of islets and few degranulations of beta cells of pancreas found in group-D. These observations and results provide information that ethanolic extract of Swietenia mahagoni seeds has hypoglycaemic effect in experimentally induced diabetic rats which requires further investigation.