Pharmacognostical, Phytochemical and In Vitro Anti-Inflammatory Evaluation of Leaf and Stem Extracts of Lepidagathis ananthapuramensis

Natural products play a crucial role in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology field, as a significant number of modern medi­cines are derived from either naturally occurring molecules or their derivatives. Considering this perspective, Lepidagathis ananthapuramensis, a new plant species belongs to the genus Lepidagathis of Acanthaceae family was selected for the present study. In this study, aerial parts of the selected plant was collected, identified and authenticated properly. Macroscopic characters were assessed by visual and physical examination. TS and Powder microscopy and the physicochemical constants were analyzed according to standard procedure. The coarse powder of leaves and stem subjected to successive solvent extraction individually by soxhlation with different solvents such as petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone, methanol and water. Anti-inflammatory activity of all the extracts was evaluated by different approaches viz., inhibition of protein denaturation, proteinase inhibitory activity and human red blood cell (HRBC) membrane stabilization assay. The results of histological and pharmacognostical evaluation gave significant data about the crude sample. In the preliminary phytochemical evaluation, presence of alkaloids, glycosides, phenolic compounds, tannins, flavones and flavonoids, terpenoids, sterols were found, mainly in the methanolic stem extract. In the in vitro anti-inflammatory evaluation, the methanolic stem extract showed significant activity comparing with other tested extracts. Various phytochemicals particularly, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins and alkaloids found in this extract may be responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity found in the present study. Further studies in the direction of different biological activities and chromatographic and spectral studies of the extracts in the future will reveal more significant data.