PHYTOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF ACALYPHA COMMUNIS MULL. ARG. FOR THEIR HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY

Objective: Acalypha communis is a synonym of Ricinocarpus communis (Müll.Arg.) belonging to the family of Euphorbiaceae. A. communis possess awide variety of activities like antimicrobial. Hence, the present study was intended to evaluate ethanolic leaf extract of A. communis for hepatoprotectiveactivities.Methods: The hepatoprotective activity was studied by paracetamol (2 g/kg) and D-galactosamine (400 mg/kg) induced models. Acute toxicity studyand preliminary phytochemical screening were also studied to evaluate the toxicity.Results: No toxicity profile was observed in rats after oral administration of the ethanolic leaf extract at the dose of 5 g/kg body weight. Thedifferent dose of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg administered with the extract of A. communis. There was significant (p<0.001) reduction in biochemicalparameters with respect to control. Phytochemical screening of the plant extract revealed the presence of tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins,and terpenoids.Conclusion: It can be concluded that the hepatoprotective activity elucidated by A. communis could be mainly due to the presences of high-value classof compound like the phenolic group as the major content in the plants.Keywords: Acalypha communis, Paracetamol, D-galactosamine, Biochemical parameters and histopathological studies