RESEARCH ARTICLE International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences SCREENING OF TRADITIONAL INDIAN SPICES FOR INHIBITORY ACTIVITY OF ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE AND BUTYRYLCHOLINESTERASE ENZYMES

The Indian spices are known for their medicinal properties from ages apart from adding taste to the Indian cuisines. In this study, traditional Indian spices such as Cuminum cyminum, Cinnamomum zeylanicu, Eletteria cardamom, Eugenia caryophyllus and Piper nigrum were assessed for inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) enzymes. The assessment of cholinesterase enzyme inhibition was carried out by using a colorimetric method based on Ellman’s reaction. Our findings demonstrate that aqueous and ethanolic extract of these plants significantly inhibited AChE and BuChE enzymes. For aqueous extracts the maximum inhibitory activity was shown by Cuminum cyminum (66.66±0.005) % and (66.84±0.001) % for AChE and BuChE respectively. For ethanolic extracts, maximum inhibitory activity for AChE was observed for Eletteria cardamom i.e. 61.96±0.003 % whereas for BuChE inhibition, Piper nigrum showed maximum inhibition i.e 73.26±0.005%. These results showed that there could be great potential to search for novel usage of these medicinal plants for anti-cholinesterase compounds