Investigations on biological activities and phytochemical profile of seeds of elaeocarpus sphaericus Gaertn K Schum

Abstract

Oxidants or reactive oxygen species are produced in our body during aerobic metabolism leading to many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases etc. Antioxidants are the chemicals that neutralize these oxidants. Natural antioxidants are the secondary metabolites of phytochemicals and are preferred over synthetic antioxidants, which are found to impose side effects. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the biological activities and phytochemical profile of seeds of Elaeocarpus sphaericus (Gaertn) K. Schum. The results indicated that EEEs inhibited DPPH, ABTS, superoxide, nitric oxide, hydroxyl, and hydrogen peroxide radicals in a concentration dependent manner with IC50 values of 60 ± 0.57, 130 ± 0.65, 975±1.45, 850 ± 0.57, 58 ± 1.0 and 80 ± 1.52 respectively. The results obtained in the present study indicated that EEEs is a potential source of natural antioxidants. The acute toxicity of EEEs was studied in Wistar rats. In view of the well estabilished antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect of EEEs, anti-arthritis effect of EEEs was evaluated by using Freund s complete adjuvant-induced paw edema in rats. The antimicrobial activity of EEEs was tested using disc diffusion method against 12 human microbial pathogens. Phytochemical profile of EEEs was investigated and the percentage yield of petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol and water extract was found to be 3.95, 7.30, 8.07, 11.39 and 5.64 %. The total phenol, flavonoid, flavonol and ascorbic acid contents of the EEEs were measured. The results indicated that the total flavonoid content of EEEs was found to be 200 ± 1.0 mg/100g of Gallic acid equivalent (GAE). The results obtained in the present study indicated that EEEs can be a potential source of natural antioxidant in treatment of oxidative stress induced diseases. newline newline newline