Bioactivity guided isolation and characterization of anti-hepatotoxic markers from Berberis pachyacantha Koehne

Abstract

Plants with medicinal properties have the ability to provide a variety of herbal medications with fewer adverse effects. From the literature survey, it has been revealed that Berberis pachyacantha(BP) is being traditionally used for liver diseases. The cytoprotective effect of dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate, and n-butanol extracts of BP were investigated against ethanol-induced cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells. The results revealed that the cytotoxicity of ethanol was substantially decreased by DCM, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol extracts of BP in a dose-dependent manner. The ethyl acetate extract(BPE), which showed the highest hepatoprotective potential, was further investigated to assess its ability to quench the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by ethanol using fluorescence microscopy. We further confirmed in vivo activity against ethanol-induced liver damage in wistar rats. Finally, isolation and characterization of active components from bioactive extracts of B. pachyacantha were carried out. DCM extract (BPD) of B. pachyacantha yielded quercetin, oxy-berberine, β-sitosterol, and berberine. The berberine and quercetin have been isolated first time from this species of Berberis. Based on the in vitro hepatoprotective and in vivo screening tests, B. pachyacantha has manifested hepatoprotective action in the experimented models.