Phytochemical Screening and Exploration of the Pharmacological Potentials of the Mangrove Plant Excoecaria agallocha Linn

Abstract

This study focused on evaluating the methanolic extract of leaves of Excoecaria agallocha Linn., a mangrove tree of Euphorbiaceae family, for its phytochemical properties and pharmacological activities. The antioxidant assay was performed by using the DPPH free radical scavenging method, ferric reducing power assay, and by investigating total phenolic and total flavonoid content. The cytotoxic assessment of the extract was performed by using the brine shrimp lethality bioassay method. The phytochemical assessment of leaf extract indicated the existence of carbohydrates, reducing sugars, glycosides, tannins, alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, and flavonoids. The quantitative antioxidant potentiality by DPPH free radical scavenging assay revealed that the extract indicated antioxidant activity with IC 50 value of 65.75 µg/mL as compared to ascorbic acid (IC 50 = 4.17 µg/mL). In the ferric reducing power assay, the extract exhibited an increasing trend of ferric reducing power activity with the increasing concentration. According to this study, the total flavonoid and total phenolic content of the extract were 77.28 ± 0.16 mg QE/g and 61.76 ± 0.15 mg GAE/g, respectively. In the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the LC 50 value for the extract was 26.05 µg/mL, which was compared to vincristine sulphate (LC 50 = 1.54 µg/mL). The findings of this study exposed that different bioactive phytochemicals existed in the extract that showed different pharmacological activities. This research has served as background for further study to isolate, purify, and identify the responsible bioactive compounds for clinical use against various disease conditions.