Journal of Medicinal Plant Research Vol. 1 (5), 095- 102, December 2007          
ISSN 1996-0875 © 2007 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of leaves of Barringtonia  racemosa

Mandana Behbahani, Abdul Manaf Ali, Radzali Muse and Noorjahan Banu Mohd

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, UPM, Malaysia.

*Corresponding Author email: ma_behbahani@yahoo.com

Accepted 17, July 2007

The medicinal plant of Barringtonia racemosa (lecythidaceae family) has been used widely in traditional medicine for anti-inflammation and anticancer in Malaysia. The present investigation was carried out to study of the anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of fully expanded leaf extracts of B. racemosa. Antioxidant activity was measured by using FTC, TBA and DPPH free radical scavenging methods and Griess assay was also used for the measurement of nitric oxide inhibition in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon- ע (IFN- ע)-treated RAW 264.7 cells. Different crude extracts of fully expanded leaf extracts of B. racemosa have exhibited a very good level of nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory and antioxidant activities. In the Griess assay, non polar extracts such as chloroform and  hexane extracts were found  to be strong inhibitors of NO at different concentrations (25, 50, 100 and 200 µg/ml) in comparison with polar extract (ethanol extract). Chloroform extract didn’t show cytotoxicity against RAW 264.7 cells at different concentrations contrary to hexane and ethanol extracts. The chloroform and hexane extracts exhibited very strong antioxidant properties when compared to Vitamin E (a-tocopherol) in the FTC and TBA methods, the chloroform and hexane extracts exhibited the radical scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value of 54.29 and 63 µg/ml respectively. Results demonstrated that chloroform extract of B. racemosa leaf may have the potential to be used as anti-inflammation and anti-oxidant agents and it was revealed that the active compound in B. racemosa is lycopene.

Key words: Barringtonia racemosa, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory.