IN VITRO STUDIES ON NEPHROPROTECTIVE EFFICACY OF CYNODON DACTYLON AND GMELINA ASIATICA

Abstract

Cynodon dactylon and Gmelina asiatica plants are used since ages in Ayurveda and Siddha systems of medicine for treating various ailments. In the present paper phytochemical analysis of these plant sources and their antioxidant and nephroprotective efficacy studies carried out through in vitro method are presented and discussed. The phytochemical analysis of aqueous extracts of these plants revealed the presence of high concentration of secondary metabolites like phenolic acids, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidin which were determined  using gallic acid and quercetin as standards.

METHODS: Antioxidant activity of each extract was evaluated using in vitro assays such as  DPPH (1, 1–diphenyl picrylhyrazyl) radical scavenging assay, reducing power assay, nitric oxide scavenging activity, superoxide scavenging activity, NADH assay, lipid peroxidation assay and thiobarbituric assay. In vitro anti-inflammatory plant drugs were evaluated using in vitro methods like inhibition of protein denaturation, membrane stabilization assay and proteinase inhibitory assay. Acetyl salicylic acid and butyl hydroxyl toluene were used as standard for anti-inflammatory and anti oxidant assays respectively.

RESULTS: Selected plants have shown potent protective activity against free radical which is evident through data obtained in various antioxidant assays. All the extracts tested revealed a protective effect on RBCs against heat induced membrane damage and proteinase inhibition which depicted its vital role in maintaining the integrity of the cell membrane. The promising results obtained through in vitro antioxidant and anti inflammatory assay prompted us to evaluate nephroprotective potential of these plants using DNA fragmentation assay, Epifluorescence assay and Cytoprotective assay. Normal kidney cells (vero cells) were used for epiflourescence dual staining and DNA fragmentation assay using vitamin E as positive control.

CONCLUSION: The data of the results obtained suggested that the selected plants can contribute in the development of human friendly antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and nephroprotective agent. Attempts were also made to understand the propable mechanism of action through in silico approaches.

Keywords Ethnomedicine; Cynodon dactylon; Gmelina asiatica; antioxidant; anti-

inflammation; nephroprotective; in silico; in vitro; DNA fragmentation