Healing Effects of Wheat Grass (Triticum aestivum L) Extracts on RBC Membrane Damage

Abstract

The study was mainly designed to validate the healing effects of wheat grass on RBC membrane damage. RBC membrane damage can be due to several factors, of which the free radical damage takes a major part. Many medicinal herbs have been used in study to find out their potential role in healing effects and at the same time in scavenging the free radicals. Several works were proved of the possible role of the flavonoids and phenols in the healing effects. A detailed study was done on the extracts of wheat grass in relation to its healing effects on the RBC membrane damage. The fractions (Chloroform & Methanol) were initially screened for the Phenolics and Flavonoids and then estimated for the total polyphenols. Further, the fractions were used for tested for the invitro experiments on the rat blood sample. % inhibition of Haemolysis, Chelating activity and SH group measurement are tested with the evaluated fractions. The plant responded positive for both the phytochemicals screened. The results of Folin –Ciocalteu total phenols photometric assay showed that the Methanol fraction was shown to contain more polyphenols (41%), than the chloroform fraction. Both the chloroform and methanol extracts showed the inhibition of haemolysis. Percent inhibition of haemolysis was dose dependent in both the fractions. The IC50 values of chloroform and methanol are 1.689 mg/ml and 2.481 mg/ml respectively. The IC50 values were calculated from the equation of slope (Y=mx+c), where Y is taken as 50. The SH group content showed an abrupt decrease in the presence of the SH group inhibitor Tetrathionate. The control showed a high value normally. When the samples containing Tetrathionate were preincubated with the chloroform and methanol extracts, the values showed an abrupt increase in respect to the Tetrathionate treated samples. This increase in the values from 195 to about 326 and 389 showed the healing effects of the extracts. Methanol extract showed a high healing effect when compared to the chloroform extract. This healing effect might be due to the presence of phenolic in high content. Past studies have been done on Wheat grass in relation to their total phenolics and flavonoids. At the same phenolics were used in studying against the RBC membrane damage. Our study suggests that the wheat grass can be used as a better and novel therapeutic agent in healing the RBC membrane damage induced by free radicals.