Antioxidant and Haematological Activities of Ethanolic Extract of Ricinus communis

Abstract

Ricinus communis commonly known as castor oil is used as a traditional natural remedy or folkloric herb for the control and treatment of a wide range of diseases around the globe. Various studies have revealed the presence of diverse phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, saponins, phenolic compounds such as kaempferol, gallic acid, ricin, rutin, lupeol, and ricinoleic acid. The present study investigates the in vivo and in vitro analyses of the effect of ethanolic extract of ricinus communis leaf and seed on animal models. The antioxidant potential of Ethanolic leaf and seed extract of Ricinus communis was investigated. The result shows that the ethanolic extract of the seed and leaf exhibited IC50 values of 77.17± 0.36 and 69.33 ± 0.26 μg/mL, 62.86±0.54 and 62.39±0.18 μg/mL respectively in DPPH and nitric oxide radical inhibition assays these values were less than those obtained for ascorbic acid used as standard. In the in vivo experiments the extract treatment caused a significant increase in the level of catalase in the liver and the kidneys. A significant increase in the level of SOD in the liver was observed. The acute toxicity study was carried out in both male and female wistar rats; the results reveal that even at the highest dose 2000mg/kg body weight R.communis seed and leaf extract showed no significant toxic effects showing that LD50 is above 2000 and belongs to class 5. The haematological and biochemical parameters of the treatment groups were compared with the control group, result shows that there were no significant differences (mean ± SEM n=6 *p < 0.05) in the biochemical and haematological parameters of treatment groups compared to the control group. These findings suggest that the ethanolic extract of Ricinus communis seed and leaf exhibited a strong antioxidant activity which may be responsible for some of its reported pharmacological activities and can be used as antioxidant supplement.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.