STUDIES ON PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF CAESALPINIA BONDUCELLA (LINN)

ABSTRACT

Inflammation is a kind of host defense against harmful stimuli like pathogens, irritations and damaged cells. The over production of inflammatory molecules can lead to several inflammatory diseases. Hence, it’s essential to prevent the over expression of inflammatory molecules. Therefore the identification of the anti-inflammatory molecules is necessary and the medicinal plants are also used as a source of anti-inflammatory medicine in ancient practice. Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the phytochemical constituents, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of ethanolic extract of leaf and seed kernel of Caesalpinia bonducella. The results revealed that, ethanolic extract of C. bonducella leaf and seed kernel showed the presence of rich amounts of various secondary metabolites like alkaloid, flavonoid, saponin, phytosterol and tannins. Moreover both leaf and seed kernel extracts exhibit potent antioxidant activity, which was evidenced by both leaf and seed kernel extracts potentially inhibited the formation of DPPH radicals. The anti-inflammatory activity results explored that both leaf and kernel extract of C. bonducella significantly inhibited the albumin denaturation, proteinase action as well as heat and hypotonic solution induced hemolysis of erythrocytes. Overall the results obtained in this study clearly demonstrated that, the ethanolic extract of both leaf and seed kernel of C. bonducella showed potent anti-inflammatory activity which was possessed may the presence of rich amount of various secondary metabolites.

KEYWORDS: Caesalpinia bonducella, Anti-inflammatory, Secondary metabolites, Antioxidants.