Preliminary Phytochemical Screening, Quantitative Analysis of Alkaloids, and Antioxidant Activity of Crude Plant Extracts from Ephedra intermedia Indigenous to Balochistan.

Rahman Gul,Samiullah Sherani,Nusrat Jahan,Syed Umer Jan,Syed Faridullah

doi:10.1155/2017/5873648

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity, screening the phytogenic chemical compounds, and to assess the alkaloids present in the E. intermedia to prove its uses in Pakistani folk medicines for the treatment of asthma and bronchitis. Antioxidant activity was analyzed by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate assay. Standard methods were used for the identification of cardiac glycosides, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, anthraquinones, and alkaloids. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for quantitative purpose of ephedrine alkaloids in E. intermedia. The quantitative separation was confirmed on Shimadzu 10AVP column (Shampack) of internal diameter (id) 3.0 mm and 50 mm in length. The extract of the solute in flow rate of 1 ml/min at the wavelength 210 nm and methanolic extract showed the antioxidant activity and powerful oxygen free radicals scavenging activities and the IC50 for the E. intermedia plant was near to the reference standard ascorbic acid. The HPLC method was useful for the quantitative purpose of ephedrine (E) and pseudoephedrine (PE) used for 45 samples of one species collected from central habitat in three districts (Ziarat, Shairani, and Kalat) of Balochistan. Results showed that average alkaloid substance in E. intermedia was as follows: PE (0.209%, 0.238%, and 0.22%) and E (0.0538%, 0.0666%, and 0.0514%).

Highlights

The importance of medicinal plant in drug development is known to us and humans have used them for different diseases from the beginning of human history [1]
All plants were growing at an altitude ranging from 600 to 1100 m over the sea level. These plants were identified at the herbarium section; a voucher specimen (E-RBT-04) has been deposited in the Department of Botany, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan
The phytochemical analysis showed that the Ephedra intermedia plant extract contains a mixture of phytochemicals as reducing sugars, cardiac glycoside, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and alkaloids

Summary

Introduction

The importance of medicinal plant in drug development is known to us and humans have used them for different diseases from the beginning of human history [1]. Majority of the 50 Ephedra species throughout the world are adapted as a shrub to moisture and desert conditions [4,5,6]. Ma-Huang (Ephedra) is resultant from the aerial parts of Ephedra sinica Stapf, E. intermedia Stapf, E. equisetina Bunge, and E. distachya L. It has been utilized medicinally as a stimulant, diaphoretic, and antiasthmatic [7, 8]. It is a xerophytic shrub plant and grows in unfavorable soil and climatic conditions such as high temperature and high light (Figure 1) [9]

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