In-Vitro Lipid Peroxidation and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Eight Different Polyherbal Formulation Drugs

The study investigated the in-vitro lipid peroxidation and radical scavenging ability of eight polyherbal drugs namely, Fidson Bitters (FB), Ashetu Bitters Blood Purifying tonic (ABPs), Swedish Bitters (SB), Yoyo Bitters (YB), Ashetu Adams Formula for Diabetes (AD), Pax Herbal Mixture (PHM), Oroki Herbal Mixture (OHM) and Evans Healthy Bitters (EHB). Phytochemical screening, lipid peroxidation and radical scavenging ability of the herbal formulations were measured using standard methods. It was observed that saponin, steroid and cardiac glycoside were present in virtually all the polyherbal products except for FB, SB and PHM, and cardiac glycoside was the most abundant phytochemical while tannin was the least present phytochemical in the eight polyherbals. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical inhibition of the eight polyherbals at 100mg/ml was within 64.41% to 77.15% and all the polyherbals showed high percentage inhibition of DPPH free radicals. AD had the highest DPPH scavenging capacity (77.15%) while OHM showed the lowest inhibition among the polyherbs. All the polyherbal products showed high nitric acid scavenging activity and it was close to that of the standard (garlic). The nitric oxide scavenging activity of the eight polyherbals was within 70.04±0.10% to 82.65±0.19%. ABP showed the highest potential (79.49 %) to inhibit MDA production while EHB showed the least potential (66.38%) at 100mg/ml. FB and PHM had the lowest IC₅₀ value for all the polyherbal for MDA inhibition while EHB had the highest (58.91 mg/ml). This study showed that the polyherbal drugs have good lipid peroxidation and free radical scavenging abilities in-vitro.