Abstract

MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM THE ALCOHOLIC AND CHLOROFORM FRACTIONS OF CALLISTEMON CITRINUS AGAINST SEROTONIN TRANSPORTER PROTEIN

Santhrani Thakur* and Vijetha Pendyala

Abstract

Depression is a psychological disorder that has been classified and treated in a variety of ways. Though there are a number of synthetic drugs being used for the treatment of clinically depressed patient, their adverse effects and drug-food interactions compromise the therapeutic outcome. In the traditional systems of medicine, many plants and formulations are used to treat depression for thousands of years. Callistemon citrinus is one such plant which has been claimed in traditional literature to be valuable plant against a wide variety of diseases. In our research on the antidepressant activity of C. citrinus revealed that the alcoholic and chloroform fractions showed significant antidepressant activity by reducing the immobility time in forced swim test and tail suspension test. Therefore the aim of the present study was identification of bioactive compounds from the alcoholic and chloroform fractions of Callistemon citrinus by Gas chromatography and Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis, followed by in-silico docking to validate the activity of the compounds against active site of Serotonin transporter (SERT). GCMS analysis was done by standard protocol using the equipment JEOL GC MATE II. The identification of components was based on NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Version-11 library as well as comparison of their retention indices. The molecular docking studies were done using Schrodinger software.

Keywords: Callistemon citrinus, GC-MS Analysis, Docking, Serotonin transporter, anti-depressant.