Evaluation of Phytoconstituents, Antioxidant and Acute Oral Toxicity of Whole Plants of D. Annulatum & S. Bengalense and Flower of R. Tuberose

Abstract

Abstract From the ancient times plants have provided huge amount of important ingredients in most of the traditional medicinal systems. The present study was based on the evaluation of phytoconstituents, antioxidant and acute oral toxicity profiles of the methanolic extracts of three indigenous Indian medicinal plants, e.g., R. tuberosa, D. Annulatum, and S. bengalense. The whole plants of Dichanthium Annulatum, Saccharum bengalense and Ruellia tuberosa were collected from Hooghly, West Bengal; India. Central National Herbarium (CNH), Botanical Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. of India has identified specimens of whole plants of D. Annulatum (Ref No. CNH/50/2014/Tech.II/103) and R. tuberosa (Ref No. CNH/2017/Tech. II/19). Soxhlet apparatus was used for the extraction process. Qualitative phytochemical analyses of D. Annulatum, S. bengalense and R. tuberosa methanolic extracts were performed according to the methods described previously. Total phenolic, total flavonoid content, free radical scavenging and acute oral toxicity studies were performed. In results, phenolics, flavonoids and alkaloids were present as major groups of important secondary metabolites and carbohydrates as important biomolecules in the methanolic extracts of Dichanthium Annulatum Whole Plant (DAW), Saccharum bengalense Whole Plant (SBW), and Ruellia Tuberose Flowers (RTF). No death of the animals was observed within this dose regimen up to 72 hours of routine observation for all the three extracts, e.g., DAW, SBW or RTF. Therefore, 1/10th to1/20th of these doses, i.e., 200 to 100 mg/kg for DAW, 400 to 200 mg/kg for SBW and 100 to 50 mg/kg for RTF were considered safe. It concluded that all these three plants Dichanthium Annulatum Whole Plant (DAW), Saccharum Bengalense Whole Plant (SBW), and Ruellia Tuberose Flowers (RTF) are rich source of flavonoids, phenolic contents etc. and found safe in acute oral toxicity profile.