Strategies to evaluate antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of pet ether extract of Artocarpus chama Buch. seed.

ABSTRACT

Plant derived phytochemicals consisting of phenols and flavonoids possess antioxidant properties, eventually renders a lucrative tool to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the current study various in vitro assay strategies were implemented to evaluate antioxidant and cytotoxic potential of pet ether extract of seeds of Artocarpus chama Buch., using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging assay, cupric reducing antioxidant capacity, reducing power antioxidant capacity, total antioxidant capacity, determination of total phenol and flavonoid contents and cytotoxic activity test using brine shrimp lethality bioassay. Preliminary phytochemical study revealed the presence of flavonoid and alkaloid in the extract. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, the fraction showed significant antioxidant activities in the assay compared to the reference ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner.The IC50 value of the crude pet ether extract was 36.87 μg/mL, whereas IC50 value for the reference ascorbic acid was 14.56 μg/mL. Moreover, profound total antioxidant activity (3676.4 mg/g equivalent to ascorbic acid) was observed at 200 μg/mL extract concentration. Furthermore, extract showed good cupric reducing power and reducing power capability. In addition, significant amount of phenols and flavonoids content were obtained from the extract. The extract also displayed strong cytotoxic potential with LC50 value of 7.19 μg/mL in brine shrimp lethality bioassay. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that significant antioxidant potential as well as cytotoxic potential of pet ether extract, might be due to the attributes of high amount of phenols and flavonoids present in the extract.