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Article (PDF Available)  in Natural Product Research 18(3):1-4 · November

In vitro evaluation of Cuscuta reflexa Roxb. For thrombolytic, antioxidant, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial activities

Abul Kalam Azad, Farhina Rahman Laboni, Harun Rashid, Sahena Ferdous, Shah Samiur Rashid, Nurkhalida Kamal, Zubair Khalid Labu, M. S. Islam & Zaidul Islam Sarker

·         Faculty of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia;

·         Department of Pharmacy, World University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh;

·         Faculty of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia;

·         Faculty of Industrial Science and Technology, University Malaysia Pahang, Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia;

·         Faculty of Pharmacy, Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia;

·         Faculty of Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1538216

The key purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the thrombolytic, antioxidant, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial potentials of crude ethanol extracts (CEE) of whole plant, organic and aqueous soluble fractions (OF & AQSF).

CEE showed the highest (44.63%) clot lysis activity compared to streptokinase (64.35%). In DPPH study, petroleum ether soluble fraction (PSF) has exhibited IC50 of 18.83 μg/mL while the standard ascorbic acid was 2.48 µg/mL. AQSF profoundly inhibited the lysis of erythrocytes (66.20%) which was insignificantly different (p > 0.05) to acetylsalicylic acid (71.98%), the reference. However, AQSF showed a significantly stronger level of protection against heat-induced hemolysis (64.80%) as compared with the acetylsalicylic acid (78.90%). CEE, OF and AQSF have displayed reasonable growth of inhibition of tested bacteria compared to negative control and standard drug (77.50 mg of GAE/g).

1. Introduction

The Convolvulaceae family have almost 1650 species and Cuscuta reflexa (C. reflexa) is one of them (Joshi 2015; Rath et al. 2017), commonly known in Bangladesh as amarbel or dodder or algushi or swarna latha. The stem of this plant has been used tradition-ally as an antibacterial (Pal et al. 2006) agent and externally to treat itchy skin and internally as an antipyretic, anti-inflammatory (Suresh et al. 2011), diuretic, anti-cancer and anti-viral (Riaz et al. 2017). C. reflexa have high level of phenolic and flavonoid contents which exhibited antioxidant and a-glucosidase inhibition activities (Tanruean et al. 2017). The current research was designed to investigate its thrombolytic, antioxi-dant, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial activities in vitro.

Thrombolytic activity

Dominant thrombolytic properties were found in the CEE (44.63%) and its PSF (42.03%), AQSF (36.20%) and chloroform soluble fraction (CSF) (35.93%). Carbon tetra-chloride soluble fraction (CTFS) showed the modest clot lysis ability which was allow-ing for >25% lysis. This study has discovered the significant enhancement of thrombolytic action by all extractives of C. reflexa (Table S1). This report showed that the thrombolytic activities of the extracts (i.e., CEE, PSF, CTSF, CSF, AQSF) compared to both negative and positive control. The current study has revealed that C. reflexa extracts have high potential of clot lysis or anticoagulant activities

Antimicrobial activity

CEE of C. reflexa and its various fractions were examined against various pathogenic gram negative and gram positive bacteria. Standard ciprofloxacin disc (5 mg/disc) showed maximum zone of inhibition ranging from 43 to 49 mm in diameter whilst the extracts of C. reflexa (CSF, PSF, CTSF, CEE and AQSF) have showed the maximum growth of inhibition ranging from 11 to 15 mm, 5 to 15 mm, 11 to 14 mm, 5 to 12 mm and 5 to 11 mm, respectively against the tested bacteria (Table S2). However, further investigation may conduct to find out the possible bioactive volatile lead compounds from C. reflexa because of Lu et al. (2007) reported that the volatile oils exhibited mild antibacterial activity against the same tested bacteria in current study.