<i>Cissus quadrangularis</i> Revealed as a Potential Source of Anti‐Inflammatory and Anti‐Diabetic Pharmacophore in Experimental and Computational Studies

In orthodox medicine, Cissus quadrangularis is ordinarily used to treat asthma, menstrual disorders, diabetes, skin infections, bone fractures, burns, and wounds. But despite its extensive use, there are not many systematic studies that combine phytochemical profiling with computational and experimental methods to clarify how it works to prevent inflammatory and diabetic complications. The present study is aimed to find out the potential pharmacophore and innovation of C. quadrangularis to treat inflammatory and diabetic complications. Anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by different in vitro and in vivo tests. Moreover, in vitro enzymatic and in vivo glucose tolerance tests were also used to assess anti-diabetic potential. Furthermore, a computer-aided drug-design study was performed on five different inflammatory proteins and three diabetic proteins. The extract divulged a large quantity of polyphenol, flavonoid, and terpenoid components. HPLC analysis and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GCMS) profiling identified 29 phytocompounds. In in vitro anti-inflammatory study, C. quadrangularis extract demonstrated significant red blood cell (RBC) membrane stabilizing action in all the experiments. Additionally, the in vitro study revealed that the extract had possible inhibitory effect against α-amylase and α-glucosidase. In computational study, among the identified compounds, apiin and rosmarinic acid showed strongly binding affinity on molecular docking and stabilizing capacity on molecular dynamic simulation study with the studied enzymes. In both experimental as well as computational investigations, C. quadrangularis showed strong anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties that lend support to the ancestral use of this medicinal plant.