Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the hepatoprotective activity of the whole plant of Neptunia Prostrata L.
 Methods: The whole plant was collected and identified as Neptunia Prostrata L. The collected plants were shade dried and pulverized to fine powdered of particle size (#) 40. It was then defatted with petroleum ether for 24 hour and soaked with methanol and ethanol, respectively. The extracts was filtered and distilled off using a rotary evaporator. The phytochemical screening of the extracts was carried out and thin layer chromatography study was also done. Acute toxicity study and in vivo hepatoprotective activity of the methanolic extract using CCL4 (carbon tetra chloride) induced model was investigated.
 Results: The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides (saponins), flavonoids, tannins, carbohydrates, proteins, phenolic, steroids and terpenoids. Thin-layer chromatography of the methanolic and ethanolic extracts with their fractions using different solvents were performed by taking petroleum ether and ethyl acetate (2:8) as mobile phase system and were able to observe the presence of many spots. Oral administration of methanolic extract of Neptunia prostrata at doses till 2000 mg/kg was found safe and shows good hepatoprotective activity by showing decreased levels of serum SGOT (serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase), SGPT (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase) and ALP (alkaline phosphatase) when compared with the standard drug silymarin.
 Conclusion: The preliminary phytochemical screening of the methanol and ethanolic extract shows phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, triterpenoids, tannins, saponins, alkaloids and chromatographic studies indicates the presence of several components in varying abundance. The decrease of serum bilirubin level by the methanolic extract of the plant shows hepatoprotective activity. It has confirmed the traditional claim for its use in the treatment of jaundice.
Highlights
Liver disorder is the main challenged faced by the world today
Neptunia prostrata is an annual floating aquatic herb distributed in lakes and marshy places all over India [3]
The whole plant of Neptunia prostrata which was collected from Abhoynagar vegetable market
Summary
Liver disorder is the main challenged faced by the world today. Herbal plants of liver protection contain a variety of chemical constituents like phenols, coumarins, monoterpenes, glycosides, alkaloids and xanthenes. Manifold number of plants and formulations have proved to have hepatoprotective activity; 160 phytoconstituents obtained from 101 plants have claimed liver protecting activity [2]. Neptunia prostrata is an annual floating aquatic herb distributed in lakes and marshy places all over India [3]. It is available in 25 different states of India including the north-eastern state such as Manipur, Tripura [4, 5]. It is grown wild and being cultivated as vegetable throughout Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indo-China [6]. Since there are no particular reports on hepatoprotective activity of leaves of the plant, it was considered worthwhile to evaluate hepatoprotective activity
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