PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY STUDIES OF N-BUTANOL SOLUBLE FRACTION OF THE METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF THE AERIAL PARTS OF INDIGOFERA HIRSUTA LINN (LEGUMINOSAE)

Abstract
Indigofera hirsuta Linn. (Leguminosae) is a well-known plant used in African traditional medicine as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiulcer, anti-venom and anticonvulsant. The air-dried aerial parts of I. hirsuta was extracted with methanol using a soxhlet extractor and fractionated into ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol (n-BuOH) and aqueous fractions (AF). The n-butanol soluble fraction when subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, phenolic compounds, saponins and tannins. Repeated gel filtration of n-butanol soluble fraction over a Sephadex LH-20 column eluted with methanol followed by preparative thin-layer Chromatography resulted in the isolation of two flavonol glycosides (Kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and Kaempferol-7-O-β-Dglucopyranoside). The structures of these compounds were elucidated using chemical tests, spectroscopic techniques (UV, FTIR, 1D and 2D-NMR), and by comparison with reference spectral data. The n-butanol soluble fraction was found to have intraperitoneal LD50 of 1264.91 mg/kg in rats. Anti-inflammatory study using carrageenan-induced paw oedema in rats indicated that, the fraction significantly (p<0.05) inhibited the paw oedema at doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg. The percentage anti-inflammatory activity at the peak hour of the highest dose tested (300 mg/kg) was higher than that of ketoprofen (10 mg/kg), the standard anti-inflammatory agent used. The result of this research suggests that the n-butanol soluble fraction of the methanolic extract of the aerial parts of Indigofera hirsuta contains compounds with anti-inflammatory activity
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER DEGREE IN PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY, FACULTY OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIA MARCH, 2013
Keywords
PHYTOCHEMICAL,, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY,, STUDIES,, N-BUTANOL,, SOLUBLE,, FRACTION,, METHANOLIC,, EXTRACT,, AERIAL,, INDIGOFERA HIRSUTA LINN,, (LEGUMINOSAE).
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