EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF LEAVES OF EHRETIA ACUMINATA R. BR.

Abstract

Ehretia acuminata R. Br. is a plant with alternative medicinal properties, commonly found in Asian, African and North American countries. The present study was undertaken to prepare crude extracts of E. acuminata leaves with different polarity solvents (petroleum ether (PE), chloroform (CH), ethyl acetate (EA), ethanol (EOL) and aqua (AQ)) by using successive Soxhelet extraction method and assessing antidiabetic, antiinflammatory and antihemolytic activities by the spectrophotometric method and antimicrobial activity by the zone inhibition method. The highest antidiabetic activity was found in the chloroform extract (IC50 260-265 µg/mL) and the lowest was in the aqueous extract (IC50 1560-1550 µg/mL). In anti-inflammatory assay, highest potential was shown by ethyl acetate (IC50 290 µg/mL) extract and lowest in petroleum ether (IC50 750µg/mL) extract. The zone of inhibition is highest in ethanol extract (12-18mm) by different food poisoning microbes, similarly, ethyl acetate extract showed the highest potential in antihemolytic activity with IC50 90 µg/mL. Many extracts of E. acuminata leaves showed a high biological potential that could be attributed to the high amount of phytoconstituents and thus could be utilized as value added functional food.