Antioxidant, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing activities of Mussaenda roxburghii Hook. f.

Abstract

There is growing interest in exploiting plants for medicinal purposes especially in Asia. Herbal medicine, which uses medicinal plants primarily present as an alternative to such situation. In the present study, the crude methanol extract of leaf of Mussaenda roxburghii Hook. f. along with its all Kupchan fractions were investigated for antioxidant, membrane stabilizing and thrombolytic activity. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by using free radical scavenging (DPPH) assay. Here, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was used as standard antioxidant. The total phenolic content was also determined and expressed in gallic acid equivalent. A positive correlation was seen between total phenolic content and free radical scavenging activity of M. roxburghii having correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.58. During assay for thrombolytic activity, the petroleum-ether soluble fraction revealed 37.7% lysis of clot while standard streptokinase (SK) used as positive control, demonstrated 66.8% lysis of clot. The membrane stabilizing activity was assessed by hypotonic solution and heat-induced methods and was compared with standard acetylsalicylic acid.