Journal of Applied Life Sciences International

Aim: To evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of Sphenocentrum jollyanum Pierre leaf.

Study Design: Red blood cell Membrane stabilization, anti-lipoxygenase and proteinase inhibitory activities of the extracts were assayed in-vitro as a measure of anti-inflammatory potential of Sphenocentrum jollyanum leaf.

Place and Duration of Study: All the work was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Medical Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria between April 2015-February, 2016.

Methodology: Aqueous, ethanol extracts and the secondary metabolites were extracted using standard techniques. Inhibitory effect of the extracts on erythrocytes membrane stabilization, trypsin and lipoxygenase (in vitro) were used to assess anti-inflammatory properties of the leaf. The reactions were performed in triplicates and changes in optical density of test samples and control were measured using a 96-well micro plate reader Spectra Max 384 plus (Molecular Devices, USA) and inhibition were calculated.

Results: The result of extraction showed that the aqueous and tannin rich extract has the highest yield of 27.50 and 12.00 grams of the crude and secondary metabolites rich extracts respectively. The aqueous extract and saponin rich faction demonstrated the highest dose dependent erythrocyte membrane stabilizing potential among the crude and secondary metabolites rich extracts. It was also observed, that the aqueous extract exhibited a significant (P>0.05) dose dependent lipoxygenase inhibitory activities with IC₅₀ of (637 μg/ml) when compared with other extracts. It was observed in the proteinase inhibitory assay, that the ethanol and tannins rich fraction exhibited the maximum inhibitory potential with IC₅₀ (840 and 1810 μg/m) among the crude and factions respectively. However, the standard drugs demonstrated the strongest anti-inflammatory activities in all the assays.