Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL CREDENTIALS, ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES AND CYTOTOXICITY OF BARK DERIVED COUMARIN OF A MEDICINALLY IMPORTANT TREE HYMENODICTON ORIXENSE (ROXB.) MABB.

Padma Charan Sahoo, Prajna Priyadarshini Das, Anindita Das and Anath Bandhu Das*

ABSTRACT

Hymenodictyon orixense (Roxb.) Mabb. is a folk medicinal plant of the family Rubiaceae that has been used traditionally for treating health problems such as fever, tumor, ulcer, dermal disease, tonsillitis, chicken pox, and inflammation. This species is rarely available worldwide and decreased sharply due to overexploitation for medicinal purposes. In this study, the quantitative phytochemical screening from the bark of H. orixense was done upon extracting the bark with three different solvent systems i.e. n-hexane, acetone, and methanol. Methanol fraction of bark extract confirmed different alkaloids, flavonoids, saponin, tannin, phytosterol, quinones, and resins. The
presence of the maximum amount of phytochemicals was observed in methanol extract as compared to the other two solvents on TLC analysis. The major phyto-constituent of methanol extract was a coumarin derivative scopoletin. Significant antimicrobial and antifungal activities were shown in the methanolic bark crude extract of H. orixense that confirmed most toxic against Salmonella typhi and Trichoderma harzianum at 50 to 100 µg. Brine shrimp assay confirmed absolute mortality of nauplii in 50 µg at 18h with an LD50 at 20 µg for 8 h. Significant decrease of mitotic index coupled with cell abnormalities related to spindle abnormalities like early and late separation, multipolar anaphase, condense nuclei, chromosome break, erosion, de-nucleation leading to cell death in Allium cepa root meristematic cells confirmed cytotoxicity of the phytoconstituent. The potential use of coumarin derivative compounds of H. orixense against plant and animal cell death can further be explored as an important plant based antiapoptatic drug.

Keywords: Antibacterial, Antifungal, Brian shrimp, Cytotoxicity, Hymenodicton, Coumarin.