Phytochemical Analysis of Leaf Extracts of Pimenta dioica(L.) and their in vitro Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activity

Abstract

Pimenta dioica (L) is an economically important tropical tree and is used in perfumery industry, spices, natural pesticide and in traditional medicines. Medicinally it is helpful in the treatment of cold, dysmenorrhea, dyspepsia, joint pain, myalgia, diabetes, respiratory congestion, assorted odontalgia and severe neurologic pain. Thus this study was designed to study the phytochemicals present in the leaves of P.dioica extracted by different solvent extraction methods and their biological properties such as antioxidant/free radical scavenging and cytotoxic activities. Result showed the presence of secondary metabolites and proteins. Due to presence of high amount of phenolic compounds and flavonoids, quantitative estimation was done. The cytotoxic activity of the leaf extract was carried out in Allium cepa root tips and baby shrimps to study the changes in mitotic chromosomal aberrations. Among the different extraction methods, ethyl acetate extract of leaves showed the best maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) and highest reducing power with the lowest (LC50) value. The obtained finding showed the antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of the metabolite extracts of P. dioica with potential applications in pharmaceutical industries.