Assessment of in vitro anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities of Solanum khasianum Clarke

Abstract

Solanum khasianum, is a traditional medicinal plant of Solanaceae family. The plant represents a source of varied phytochemicals and was reported to be used in the treatment of several diseases. Therefore, our study was carried out to reveal anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities in different plant parts of S. khasianum. The leaf, fruit and root methanolic extracts of S. khasianum were investigated for its in vitro anti-inflammatory activity by Human Red Blood Cell (HRBC) membrane stabilization method; while DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging, H2O2 radical scavenging and reducing power assays were utilized to determine antioxidant activity. Additionally, the antidiabetic activity was determined by α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition assay. Our results showed that the root methanolic extract of S. khasianum exhibited a high anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities in a dose-dependent manner. The S. khasianum root extract revealed a significant anti-inflammatory activity (83.97 ± 0.36%), potent antioxidant effect by DPPH radical scavenging assay (81.88 ± 0.58%), H2O2 radical scavenging assay (80.17 ± 0.40%) and reducing power assay (0.351 ± 0.62); and in addition, showed promising antidiabetic potential by inhibiting α-amylase (84.29 ± 0.89%) and α-glucosidase (85.02 ± 0.95%). These results further substantiated the claim and use of S. khasianum in traditional medicine for the treatment of inflammation, oxidative stress and diabetes mellitus.