Phytochemical investigation and evaluation of in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of Euphorbia hirta ethanol leaf and root extracts: A comparative study

Abstract

BackgroundInflammation is an unpleasant complex biological condition that is with macrophages, leucocytes, and even mast cells. Many marketed effective chemical anti-inflammatory drugs are available but due to many disadvantages people are relying on the herbals with low health risk and toxicity. ObjectiveThe research was performed to carryout the phytochemical investigation and explore the in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of leaf and roots extracts of Euphorbia hirta (EH). MethodologyDried EH parts (viz. leaf and roots) were extracted with ethanol solvent using Soxhlet method and preliminary screened for presence of various phytochemicals. The extracts were also further tested for total alkaloids, flavonoids, and phenolics. After that, anti-inflammatory activity was measured in vitro using albumin denaturation, anti-proteinase, and anti-lipoxygenase activities against conventional anti-inflammatory agent, aspirin (100 g/ml). Finally, a correlation study was generated from the results for presence of the amount of flavonoid and phenolics in connection to the activity. ResultsThe result revealed the yield was higher in ethanol root extract (48.2 g) than leaf extract. Bioactive compounds alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, tannins, and phenolics were reported in leaf and root extracts. Further, the number of total flavonoids and phenolics showed higher in ethanolic leaf extracts (87.53 mg QE/g and 143.20 mg GAE/g). Total alkaloids content was higher in ethanolic root extracts (13.01 mg atropine/g). Ethanol EH leaf extract exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity than root by inhibiting albumin denaturation, proteinase, and the lipoxygenase activities with 87.51 %, and 51.2 % followed by 97.30 %, and 54.21 % followed by 94.43 % and 48.21 % respectively at 100 µg/ml concentration. ConclusionThe results affirmed that ethanol EH leaf extract showed better anti-inflammatory activity than root extracts when evaluated with three different in vitro models and the dose dependency activity was recorded.