Abstract
Irritant dermatological investigations of locally occurring Euphorbia prostrata were carried out to discover the irritant principle present in it. For this purpose, successive solvent extraction was carried out by using polar, non polar as well as intermediate polarity solvents for the extraction of active irritant compounds from the whole herb. Irritant potentials of these extracts were evaluated on rabbit’s skin. Biological assay showed that only the chloroform extract was active because it produced irritancy at a certain dose level. Five fractions Ep-1 to Ep-5 were isolated from the active chloroform extract of the plant by column and thin layer chromatography. Irritant dermatological prospective of these fractions were also evaluated on rabbit’s ear skin. Out of the five isolated fractions, Ep-2 and Ep-4 appeared to be the strong irritant fractions, while Ep-1, Ep-3 and Ep-5 proved to be moderately irritant fractions at the same dose level. A possible structure-activity relationship of these active fractions was also discussed based on the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) spectrum. Key words: Irritancy, Euphorbiaceae, chromatography.
Highlights
Euphorbia prostrata is a weed; it grows in the cultivated fields of wheat, rice or other crops and in the gardens along with grass
E. prostrata belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae; a large family of Dicotyledonous Angiosperms (Charles et al, 2007)
Successive extraction with petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol showed that the percentage yields of extracts of petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol were 2.95, 4.07 and 13.38%, respectively
Summary
Euphorbia prostrata is a weed; it grows in the cultivated fields of wheat, rice or other crops and in the gardens along with grass. E. prostrata grows in gardens, on distributed grounds, in cultivated land and roadside, especially in sandy soils, from sea-level to high altitude (Carter and Leach, 2001) It is found throughout India as a weed in the plains and at lower elevations (Nguyen and Sosef, 1999). Around the Indian Ocean Islands, an infusion of the leaves or aerial parts was taken either alone or combined with other plants to treat diarrhea, dysentery and stomachache. It showed activity against Shigella dysenteriae type I induced diarrhea in rats (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962; Kamgang et al, 2007).
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