Phytochemical Screening and Pharmacological Evaluation of Aristolochia Tagala Cham (Aristolochiaceae)

This project work has been designed to investigate the aerial parts of Aristolochia tagala Cham, a climbing shrub from the family Aristolochiaceae for its phytochemical nature and selected pharmacological activities. Phytochemical analysis of A. tagala Cham extract indicated the presence of carbohydrate, reducing sugar, glycosides, tannins, alkaloids, terpenoids and flavonoids etc. In the TLC-based qualitative antioxidant assay using DPPH, A. tagala extract showed the free radical scavenging properties indicated by the presence of yellow spot on a purple background on the TLC plate. In the quantitative DPPH assay the extract showed good antioxidant activity and the IC50 value was 112.20 µg/mL, 141.24 µg/mL , 72.44 µg/mL, 231.74 µg/mL for n-hexane, DCM, Ethyle acetate, Water extract of the A. tagala which is comparable to ascorbic acid (IC50 = 30.20 µg/mL). The maximum TPC was obtained in DCM (124 mg GAE/g of extract) followed by n-hexane, Aqueous, Ethyl acetate (88,99,62 mg GAE/g of extract).Maximum flavonoid content was obtained in n-hexane (1078 mg QE /g of extract) followed by Ethyl acetate, DCM & Aqueous extract (507,360,15 mg QE /g of extract).The maximum TTC was obtained in Ethyl acetate (97 mg GAE/g of extract), followed by Aqueous, DCM, n-hexane (50 ,23,9 mg GAE/g of extract). The antidiarrheal effect of n-hexane & DCM fraction at dose 500 mg/kg was significantly higher than that with 250 mg/kg dose and the difference is statistically significant (P