Abstract

A STUDY OF SEASONAL VARIATION IN CYTOTOXIC AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF LEAF AND BARK EXTRACTS OF TERMINALIA RACEMOSA (FAMILY- COMBRETACEAE)

Dipti Ranjan Behera and Sunita Bhatnagar*

Abstract

Terminalia racemosa belongs to family Combretaceae, well known for a large group of medicinal trees like Terminalia arjuna, Terminalia chebula and Terminalia bellerica. In the present study a less explored member of the family namely Terminalia racemosa was taken up for its medicinal potential. Seasonal variation plays a major role in the medicinal properties of the plant, so in the present study leaves and bark were collected in four different time periods namely in February, May, July and October from the botanical garden of Regional plant resource centre (RPRC), Solvent extracts were prepared and tested for their cytotoxic activity using brine shrimp mortality assay and antioxidant activity using thin layered chromatography(TLC) based 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) scavenging assay. In case of cytotoxic activity best results (>90%) were obtained in hexane, acetone and methanol extracts of the month of October for leaf samples and in bark samples all the extracts showed increase of cytotoxicity from February to October. In case of antioxidant activity samples collected in the month of February and July showed more number of antioxidant bands.

Keywords: Terminalia racemosa, Brine shrimp, Antioxidant, TLC, DPPH.