Evaluation of Antibacterial, Antioxidant, Wound Healing Properties of Different Solvent Fractions of Adina cordifolia Leaves in Experimental Animals

Aims: This study was conducted to investigate the antioxidant potential, antimicrobial activity and wound healing activity of ethyl acetate, butanol, and aqueous fractions of methanolic extract of leaves of Adina cordifolia (Roxb.) a locally used leave in Jharkhand, India.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi between June 2014 to April 2015.

Methods: Dried powder of the Adina cordifolia leaves was extracted with methanol. The methanolic extract was then fractionated with solvents of increasing polarity; ethyl acetate, n-butanol and the residual soluble aqueous fraction. Estimation of total phenolic and total flavonoid contents for the methanol extract and all fractions was done. The free radical scavenging activity was studied in-vitro by measuring 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide scavenging of methanolic extract and all the three fractions. Antibacterial activities were evaluated against four micro-organisms viz; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus using agar well diffusion method. The wound healing activity was evaluated by excision and incision wound models.

Results: Among all the three fractions, n-butanol fraction and aqueous fraction possessed high amount of phenolic and flavonoid contents as compared to the ethyl acetate fraction. Subsequently the n-butanol fraction and aqueous fraction also showed better free radical scavenging activity on DPPH and hydrogen peroxide radical than ethyl acetate fraction. Antibacterial activities were evaluated against four micro-organisms in which only the n-butanol fraction and Ethyl acetate fraction had showed effective antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and n-butanol fraction showed better antimicrobial activity at different concentrations than Ethyl acetate fraction. Excision wound model showed highly significant effect of drugs on percent wound contraction at all the periods under study and at day 12, percent wound contraction was 96.03 ± 0.78 in test drug and 66.16 ± 1.56 in control. In incision wound model, significantly higher tensile strength was observed in standard (5.022 ± 0.052 g/mm2) and test drug (4.858 ± 0.073 g/mm2) as compared to control (2.960 ± 0.031 g/mm2).

Conclusion: This results shows that the n-butanol fraction possess effective wound healing properties due to their antimicrobial and antioxidant activities by possessing the active compounds such as flavonoids (polyphenols), terpenes, alkaloids, saponins.