Comparative phytochemical evaluation and biological activity screening of Murdannia nudiflora and Tradescantia pallida

Abstract

The study was aimed to evaluate the phytochemicals and pharmacological investigation on commelinaceae family which have high rate of growth and found as weeds of notably important therapeutic values. The plants were chosen from different genus, one indigenous, Murdannia nudiflora from the genera Murdannia and the other exotic, native to Mexico and south American countries Tradescantia pallida from the genera Tradescantia which are mainly used as a ornamental plant to find out the presence of notable compounds present and to justify the claims provided in traditional medicine in a more precise and accurate approach of science. Preliminary phytochemical screening shows the presence of carbohydrate, alkaloids, tannins , saponins and flavonoids. Cytotoxic analysis with in vitro brine shrimp lethality assay showed LC50 at a higher concentration of 158.638 μg/ml for Murdannia nudiflora and 833.85 μg/ml for Tradescantia pallida, quite low in comparison to the activity of vincristine sulphate. For toxicokinetic study, the extract shows degree of moderate lethality of more than 60% for Murdannia nudiflora and more than 50% for Tradescantia pallida at a concentration of 640μg/ml.. The percentage of DPPH radical scavenging for antioxidant studies in Murdannia nudiflora ranges from 96.825% to 82.539%, while that of Tradescantia pallida ranges from 95.238% to 84.127% and that of ascorbic acid ranges from 96.825% to 87.302%. The IC50 values for ascorbic acid was 4.209x10-13μg/ml, for Murdannia nudiflora was 1.51x10-10μg/ml and for Tradescantia pallida was 5.48x10-10μg/ml. Analgesic activity was evaluated using in vivo acetic acid induced writhing method were 0.7% acetic acid used for the induction of pain. This study is used to evaluate both central and peripherial pain and the potential is evaluated in terms of inhibition of writhing. The mean inhibition of writhing by the samples (Murdannia nudiflora and Tradescantia pallida) were found out to be of statistically significant (p<0.001). Dichlofenac sodium (25mg/kg) was used as standard (inhibition of writhing=80.74%).The percentage of inhibition of writhing for Murdannia nudiflora was found out to be of 85.67% at 200mg/kg of body weight and 59.57% at 100mg/kg of body weight. While, on the other hand the analgesic potential of Tradescantia pallida was found out to be quite less in this regard, the percentage of inhibition of writhing at 200mg/kg was 54.55% and that of 100mg/kg of body weight was below 40%, precisely 36.41%. It also justifies the difference in claims of traditional medicine in relation to the scientific approaches of analysis with more precision and accuracy. This helps in the initial discovery of potential notable pharmacologically active compound of unknown territories of traditional medicine in the burning issues of global healthcare, to minimize the death by different non-communicable and communicable disease aimed in the development of global healthcare.