ABSTRACT
Background of the Study: Thuja orientalis L. is an indigenous medicinal plant belonging to family Cupressaceae found in Darjeeling Himalayan region, Dooars and Tarai region of India. The plant cone has been used traditionally as medicine to treat various diseases, like bronchitis, bacterial skin infection, osteoarthritis, trigeminal neuralgia. Aim: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the plant cone for phytochemical constinuents, and in vitro antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties. Place and Duration of Study: All the experiments were done in the Department of Biotechnology, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling, West Bengal, 734013, India. Methodology: Methanolic extract of T. orientalis cone was analyzed for phytochemicals by various biochemical methods. Antioxidant properties were analyzed by in vitro assays of DPPH, ABTS, NO and H2O2 scavenging. Antibacterial property was analyzed by agar well diffusion method and antifungal assay was monitored by radial growth bioassay. Results: Methanolic extract of T. orientalis cone contained flavonoid, phenol, saponin, tannin, terpenoid and alkaloid. The extract showed significant in-vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Conclusions: The study revealed that T. orientalis cone has potential as source of antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal agents. Our further study is directed towards the isolation, and characterization of active compound from methanolic extract and evaluation of its potentiality against high blood sugar.
ABSTRACT
The antioxidant activity of different extracts of Thuja orientalis was evaluated by employing three in vitro experiments namely (1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) (DPPH), reducing power and chelating power assays. The stem powder of the plant was extracted with different solvents by maceration method in order of decreasing polarity and then partitioned (Flow Chart 1). The differential activities of the different extracts could be correlated with their respective phenolic and flavanoid contents and compared with standards L-ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). All the extracts exhibit a remarkable concentration dependant scavenging activity. Moreover, among the different extract, methanol extract exhibited good scavenging response of 74.3%, 59.51% and 0.997% in DPPH, chelating power and reducing power assay in decreasing order of solvent polarity at maximum concentration, respectively. Studies are in progress to isolate and identify the active principle components responsible for this activity.