Evaluation of antioxidant, cytoprotective and genoprotective potential of Syzygium aromaticum (L.) hydrolyzed extracts

Plants of medicinal values have been used to cure many diseases since ancient times. Various bioactive ingredients of such medicinal plants serve to hinder the progression of many infectious diseases. The current study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant, anti-haemolytic and genoprotective activities of a selected medicinal plant i.e. Syzygium aromaticum. Extraction with aqueous methanol in variable concentrations viz; 50%, 70% and 100 % to squeeze out the loosely bound phenolic compounds from plant cells; while strongly bound bioactives were recovered by hydrolyzed extraction proceeded by mineral acid, HCl (0.01N, 0.1N, 0.5N) and an alkali, NaOH (0.01N, 0.1N, 0.5N). Results demonstrated that methanol (100%) was able to extract highest number of phenolic compounds, as depicted by TPC assay (75.44±0.70 mg GAE/g extract) which were responsible for highest antioxidant potential by neutralizing DPPH free radicals (77.15±1.93%) and Fe3+ ion reducing capacity (72.55±2.49 mg AAE/g extract). Acidic hydrolyzed extraction gave even higher phenolic contents (93.12±0.72 mg GAE/g extract) while alkaline hydrolysis (84.22±0.24 mg GAE/g extract) was not quite satisfactory. Acidic hydrolyzed extract (0.1N) presented highest cytoprotective potential (95.15±1.44%) by preventing H2O2 induced oxidative damage to human red blood cells, and highest anti-mutation in selected bacterial strains (98.26±0.48%). Acidified hydrolyzed extract was then, subjected to HPLC phytochemical characterization that indicated the presence of twenty bioactive compounds belong to variable classes of phytochemicals. These results demonstrated that S. aromaticum could have potent medicinal and therapeutic applications.