Abstract
Context: Medicinal plants continue to act as a repository for novel drug leads with novel mechanisms of action. Podophyllum hexandrum Royale (Berberideceae) treats diverse conditions in folk medicine.Objective: The antimutagenic potential of P. hexandrum was evaluated against endosulfan-induced clastogenicity in a piscine model by cytogenetic endpoints.Materials and methods: Podophyllum hexandrum rhizomes were subjected to successive solvent extraction. Fish were exposed to hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts (15 mg/L each) of plant and endosulfan (0.05 mg/L) alone followed by their combination for antimutagenicity estimates. Chromosomal aberrations (CA) were made from kidney cells and micronuclei (MN) slides from peripheral blood erythrocytes at 48, 72 and 96 h. Antioxidant activity was analyzed by the DPPH assay. Phytochemical analyses were carried out using chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques.Results: Endosulfan induced significant (p < .05) MN, authenticated by scanning electron microscopy, and CA in a time-dependent manner. However, methanol and ethyl acetate extracts revealed ameliorating effects. The column eluted methanolic fraction-2 (ME-F2) showed highest reduction profile of 83 and 84% in CA and MN, followed in its extent (73 and 72%) by ethyl acetate fraction-4 (EE-F4). ME-F2 and EE-F4 showed three and six major peaks when analyzed by GC-MS. To explore possible mechanism of action, ME-F2 showed potent antioxidant potential and strong correlation (R2 = .900) with antimutagenic activity, whereas EE-F4 seemed to act through a different mechanism.Discussion and conclusion: This study confirms the antimutagenic potential of the subject plant with the identification of some novel compounds, justifying their use in folk medicine, and their corresponding benefit to mankind.
Highlights
The medicinal use of Podophyllum hexandrum Royale syn
Endosulfan and its simultaneous treatment with hexane, chloroform and aqueous extract were able to produce Chromosomal aberrations (CA) in a significant (p < .05) manner, but the reduction in CA frequency was observed in case of methanol (71%) and EtOAc (60%) extracts at 96 h, which were further studied in a concentrationdependent manner in order to find out the most effective concentration which came to be 10 and 15 mg/L, respectively (Table 2)
In the EtOAc group with endosulfan, fraction ethyl acetate fraction-4 (EE-F4) was found to be more effective as the highest reduction of 73% (0.05 mg/L endosulfan þ15 mg/L EE-F4) was recorded after 96 h registering the frequency of 5.71 ± 0.27 compared to 12.14 ± 0.47 of endosulfan (0.05 mg/L) alone (Table 3)
Summary
The medicinal use of Podophyllum hexandrum Royale syn. The plant has been described as ‘Aindri’ – a divine drug in the traditional Indian System of Medicine – the Ayurveda used for the treatment of several ailments including taenia capitis, monocytoid leukaemia, genital warts, constipation, cold, biliary fever, septic wounds, inflammation, burning sensation, mental disorder, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (Singh & Shah 1994). Podophyllotoxin is the most abundant cyclolignan isolated from podophyllin, a resin produced by species of the genera Podophyllum, has cathartic, antirheumatic, antiviral, pesticidal and antimitotic activities (Xu et al 2011; He et al 2013). The discovery and exploration of compounds possessing antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties are gaining credence. The significance of novel bioactive phytocompounds in counteracting the promutagenic and carcinogenic effects are gaining credence
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