Phytochemical investigation, cytotoxicity and anti-diabetic activity of whole fresh and dry ethanolic extracts of sudanese portulaca quadrifida

Abstract

Historically, natural products have been used since ancient times and in folk medicine for the treatment of many diseases and illnesses. Portulacaquadrifida popularly called Chicken-weed belongto family Portulacaceae. In Sudanese folk medicine, this plant has been used to treat diabetes, and as a poultice to treat neuralgia in herpes zoster. Pharmacological activities of P. quadrifida include anti-microbial, anti hyperglycemic, antioxidant,anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive, anti convulsion properties, anti epileptic and anti cancer activity.In this study the phytochemical, Cytotoxicity and anti-diabetic activity of whole fresh and dry ethanolic extracts of Sudanese P. quadrifida L were investigated. The results showedhigh content of tannin 28.07-13.68 ppm for fresh and dry samples respectively. The P. quadrifidaextracts were found to be rich source of vitamin C (1.16-1.76 ppm) for fresh and dry respectively. In the cytotoxicity test using Microculture tetrazolium (MTT) assay, the IC50 values were 858 and 155.3092 ppm for dry and fresh samples extracts respectively. The Alpha amylase inhibition of both extracts showed high activity with inhibition percentage 95 and 91 % for dry and fresh extracts respectively at concentration 1000 ppm compared to the positive control (Acarbose).