Screening of Antioxidant, Antibacterial, Anti-Adipogenic, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Five Selected Medicinal Plants of Nepal

Gopal Lamichhane; Grinsun Sharma; Biswash Sapkota; Mahendra Adhikari; Sandhaya Ghimire; Prakash Poudel; Hyun-Ju Jung

doi:10.2147/JEP.S388968

Screening of Antioxidant, Antibacterial, Anti-Adipogenic, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Five Selected Medicinal Plants of Nepal

J Exp Pharmacol. 2023 Mar 2:15:93-106. doi: 10.2147/JEP.S388968. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Gopal Lamichhane^#^{1

2}, Grinsun Sharma^#^{1

3}, Biswash Sapkota^#^{1

4}, Mahendra Adhikari^#^{1

5}, Sandhaya Ghimire^#¹, Prakash Poudel^{1

6}, Hyun-Ju Jung²

Affiliations

¹ School of Health and Allied Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pokhara University, Pokhara, 33700, Nepal.
² Department of Oriental Pharmacy and Wonkwang-Oriental Medicines Research Institute, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, 570-749, South Korea.
³ Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, College of Pharmacy, Wonkwang University, Iksan, 570-749, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacology, Madan Bhandari Academy of Health Sciences, Hetauda, 44107, Nepal.
⁵ Department of Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
⁶ Pharmacy Program, Gandaki University, Pokhara, 33700, Nepal.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Herbal products have been widely used for the treatment of diseases throughout the ages. In this research, we investigated antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-adipogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities of methanolic extracts of five ethnomedicinally important plants; namely, Alnus nepalensis, Dryopteris sparsa, Artocarpus lacucha, Litsea monopetala, and Lyonia ovalifolia.

Methods: We investigated the DPPH free radical scavenging potential, sensitivity of selected bacterial strains towards the extracts using a disc diffusion assay, anti-inflammatory activity in RAW-264.7 cells, and anti-adipogenic activity by the ORO assay in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.

Results and discussion: The extract of A. nepalensis showed significant antioxidant activity (IC₅₀=4.838 µg/mL), followed by A. lacucha, L. monopetala, and L. ovalifolia, exhibiting comparable IC₅₀ values to that of ascorbic acid (IC₅₀=5.063 µg/mL). Alnus nepalensis also showed good antibacterial activity in disc diffusion methods, with remarkable zones of inhibition in A. baumannii (14.66 mm) and P. mirabilis (15.50 mm) bacterial species. In addition, A. nepalensis was found to increase adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells, evidenced by increased lipid deposition in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells. A similar pattern of increased adipogenesis was observed on treatment with L. ovalifolia extracts. On the other hand, A. lacucha effectively reduced lipid deposition in 3T3-L1 cells at 100 µg/mL (75.18±6.42%) by inhibiting adipogenesis, showing its potential use in the management of obesity. Furthermore, A. lacucha 100 µg/mL (15.91±0.277 µM) and L. monopetala 75 µg/mL (12.52±0.05 µM) and 100 µg/mL (11.77±0.33 µM) significantly inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide production in RAW 264.7 cells. Also, A. nepalensis and L. ovalifolia inhibited NO production significantly, endorsing their anti-inflammatory potential.

Conclusion: The findings from these in-vitro studies suggest that the selected five plants possess remarkable antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-adipogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities. This study opens the door to conduct further advanced in-vivo experiments to find possible lead compounds for the development of valuable therapeutic agents for common health problems.

Keywords: Alnus nepalensis; Artocarpus lacucha; Dryopteris sparsa; Litsea monopetala; Lyonia ovalifolia.