Mayuri Thumar

Oxidative stress is closely associated with the pathogenesis of anemia and several chronic disorders, making natural antioxidants an important source of therapeutic agents. The present study investigated the in vitro antioxidant potential and quantitative phytochemical profile of hydroalcoholic extracts of Spinacia oleracea, Withania somnifera, Emblica officinalis, and Caesalpinia bonducella. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined using Folin–Ciocalteu and aluminium chloride colorimetric methods, respectively, while antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH, ABTS, nitric oxide, superoxide scavenging, reducing power, and FRAP assays. Among the tested plants, E. officinalis demonstrated the strongest antioxidant activity, exhibiting approximately 95.15% DPPH, 95.67% ABTS, 94.00% nitric oxide, and 95.18% superoxide radical inhibition at 500 μg/mL. C. bonducella showed comparable radical scavenging activity, whereas W. somnifera displayed moderate activity. S. oleracea contained the highest iron concentration (11.431 ppm) despite showing comparatively lower antioxidant activity. The findings suggest that the antioxidant efficacy of the selected plants is strongly associated with their phytochemical constituents, particularly phenolic and flavonoid compounds, supporting their potential application in the development of herbal hematinic formulations.

ABSTRACTBauhinia variegata (Family: Fabaceae) is well-known medicinal plant used from the ancient era to till date for their medicinal values. The powerful biological activities as exhibited by plant flavonoids posed the need of determining their contents in B. variegata stem bark. In view of its wide use and its chemical compositions, this study was aimed at examining and comparative analysis of the antioxidant and anticancer activities of the different extracts of stem bark. Antioxidant activity of extracts was expressed as percentage of DPPH, super oxide and nitric oxide free radicals inhibition and expressed asIC50 values (?g/mL). Methanolic extracts of B. variegata showed the highest amount of and ?avonoid contents and reducing capacity whereas, chloroform and dichloromethane extracts of B. variegata showed pronounced cytotoxic effect against HCT-116, A549 and ethyl acetate extracts showed pronounced cytotoxic effect against Ovcer-5 human cancer cell lines. The order of antioxidant activity in B. variegata extracts displayed from higher to lower level as methanol, hydro-alcoholic, ethyl acetate, chloroform, dichloromethane and n-hexane extracts of stem bark of B. variegata. Commercial standards were taken as control showed highest antioxidant power in the present study. Chemical components of B. variegata have good antioxidant capacities and this species could be used as a potential source of new natural antioxidants. Keywords: Antioxidant; Bauhinia variegata; Cytotoxicity; Stem bark extract; Total flavonoids.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) drugs are generally used as a part of drug therapy in inflammation. However, these drugs have severe side-effects. Therefore, naturally originated compounds with very little side-effects are required to substitute chemical therapeutics and have better safety profile. Solanum sisymbriifolium (Family: Solanaceae) has many therapeutic uses mentioned in Ayurveda. Moreover, the plant has diverse pharmacological activity such as antihypertensive, diuretic, analgesic, contraceptive, antisyphilitic, hepatoprotective. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the preliminary phytochemical screening and anti-inflammatory activity of methanolic extract of roots of Solanum sisymbriifolium (MERS). Carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model was used for assessing the anti-inflammatory activity. The phytochemical analysis of MERS confirmed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavanoids, terpenoids, tannins and saponins. Furthermore, MERS at doses of 50,100, 200 and 300 mg/kg showed anti-inflammatory activity in dose-dependent manner.