Studies on in vitro antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities of ethanol extract of Pterocarpus marsupium ROXB. bark

AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:Since pre-historic days attempts are being made to find out suitable drugs from natural sources for treatment of different diseases. The rational approaches, experience of folk medicine provide a valuable approach in the search for the development of new and useful therapeutic agents. Gradually keeping in pace with the scientific interpretations of the drug actions, the causes of the diseases, and the development in the field of chemistry and technology, intensive efforts are being directed towards the design and synthesis of new drugs. More recently a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that about 80% of the World’s population still relies on traditional medicine. This is of interest to a natural product chemist for many reasons. There is the possibility that the herb used in the traditional medicine is harmful to the patient, in which case the treatment may do more harm the good. Conversely, there is the possibility that the herbs used are not effective at all. That may not be of concern for minor ailments, but in more serious cases an ineffective treatment could result in the death of the patient. Hopefully, however, the herbs used are effective. If that is the case then investigation of that remedy could be of benefit to the remaining 20% of the World’s population. Natural products still play a very important role in the medicine of the remaining 20% of the world’s population. Between 1983 and 1994, 41% of new approved drugs have natural products as their source. This percentage becomes even higher when one examines anti-infective and anticancer compounds. For both classes, the percentage of drugs with natural products as their source increases to over 60%. Because natural products are most important in the areas of anti-infective, antioxidants and anticancer agents, some of the important contributions to these drug classes are worth closer inspection. In particular the anticancer drugs will be examined as that is the area of our research. Cancer is a multifactorial, multifaceted and multimechanistic disease requiring a multidimensional approach for its treatment, control and prevention. Cancer involves fundamental biological processes concerning disorganised cell replication, cell death and disorganization of organ structure. The annual estimates of cancer for the year 2001 in India is 0.98 million and the annual mortality in 2000 is 0.7 million. The incidence of cancer is on the rise, with multiple risk factors that involve interplay between genetic and environmental components. The aim of the research is to find out new anticancer drugs from indigenous plants which are potent and nontoxic agents. These plants are traditional medicinal plants. Their chemical characterization, mode of action and toxicity studies are yet to be established. Present project deals with phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of Triumfetta rhomboidea, Adiantum venustum, leaves and stem with special reference to in-vitro studies like antioxidant, cytotoxicity and in-vivo studies like anticancer, antioxidant, analgesic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing in animal models. Normally herbal products are free from side effects/adverse effect and they are low cost medicines, which will be beneficial for the people of this country. Keeping this in view, we have selected two plants from the Kolli hills, Namakkal District of Tamil Nadu which are used by the tribes for the treatment of different types of diseases. The main objective of this work is to develop potent anticancer agent having no minimum side effects from indigenous plants for the therapeutic management. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: The present dissertation work was carried out to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities of ethanol extract of Pterocarpus marsupium ROXB. bark. Literature survey revealed that P. marsupium is a versatile medicinal plant and is a unique source of wide range of phytocompounds with diverse chemical structure and pharmacological activity. Very little work has been reported thus far on the biological activity and plausible medicinal applications of these compounds and hence extensive investigation is needed to exploit their therapeutic utility to combat diseases. The plant has been widely studied for its pharmacological activities for antidiabetic activities and regarded as universal panacea in Ayurvedic medicines and is believed to be a versatile plant having a wide spectrum of medicinal activities. With the application of proper scientific and technological advances, a logical interpretation of the codified language of traditional medicine has become a necessity to further promote drug discovery and drug development. Efforts have to be explored and studies need to be undertaken to isolate and develop new molecules especially, with the compounds isolated from P. marsupium. Although crude extracts from various parts of P. marsupium have been reported to be used as medicinal applications from time immemorial, modern drugs can be further refined and developed after extensive investigation of its bioactivity, mechanism of action, pharmacotherapeutics, and toxicity and after proper standardization and clinical trials. P. marsupium bark was extracted with ethanol and the yield was 7.06 % w/w. The chemical constituents of the extract were identified by qualitative analysis. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of P. marsupium showed the positive test of as carbohydrates, sterols, glycosides, phenols, phytosterols and steroids, proteins& amino acids, flavonoids, triterpenoids. The acute and sub-acute toxicity study of P. marsupium did not show any toxic signs at different increasing dosage levels upto 2000mg for acute and 2700mg for subacute levels. From the results, it was observed that both plant extracts were safe for oral administration on study conducted in mice. In vitro cytotoxicity activity of EEPM revealed that it exhibited moderate cytotoxic properties towards cancerous cell lines HT-29 and HeLa, whereas against C2C12, test extract failed to exhibit cytotoxicity at test concentrations with only 32 % cytotoxicity at 1000 μg/ml. As the global scenario is now changing towards the use of non-toxic plant products having traditional medicinal use, development of modern drugs from P. marsupium should be emphasized for the control of various diseases. In fact, time has come to make good use of centuries-old knowledge on P. marsupium through modern approaches of drug development. For the last few years, there has been an increasing trend and awareness in P. marsupium research. Quite a significant amount of research has already been carried out during the past few decades in exploring the chemistry of different parts of P. marsupium. Several therapeutically and industrially useful preparations and compounds have also been marketed, which generates enough encouragement among the scientists in exploring more information about this medicinal plant. An extensive research and development work should be undertaken on P. marsupium and its products for their better economic and therapeutic utilization. In may be concluded that the in vitro antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities and other associated biodynamic pharmacological activities of the ethanol extract of P. marsupium may be attributed to the presence of triterpenoids and flavonoids and other phytoconsitutents in the extract. However, further studies are needed to isolate the phytoconsitutents and to explore the pharmacological actions of the isolated compounds and the mode of action of these terpenoids and flavonoids and other phytochemicals