ETHNOBOTANICAL EVALUATION AND BIOLOGICAL SCREENING OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS FROM GALLIYAT, WESTERN HIMALAYA, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The present project was conducted with aim to provide information on ethnomedicinal uses, biological screening, antioxidant potential, antileishmanial, antiglycation, immunomodulatory and anticancer activates of the medicinal plants from Galliyat region of western Himalaya, Pakistan. The present study provides information on the ethnobotanical uses of medicinal plants in the Galliyat area of Western Himalaya, Pakistan. This study includes 45 medicinal plants including 38 angiosperms, 4 gymosperms and 3 pteridophytes. The inhabitants of the area utilized different parts of the plants for the medication purposes involve; leaves (19 sp.), root (11 sp.), fruit (7 sp.), flower (7 sp.), bark (6 sp.), seed (5 sp.), aerial parts (4 sp.), whole plants (3 sp.), rhizome (3 sp.) and wood (2 sp.). Major source of the ethnobotanical data were old age peoples and traditional practitioners. Women have more knowledge as compared to the males. The biological screenings of medicinal plants were carried out for 10 selected medicinal plants include: Geranium collinum Steph. ex Willd., Persicaria barbata (L.) Hara, Impatiens edgeworthii Hook. f., Rubia cordifolia L., Clematis grata Wall., Geranium wallichianum D.Don ex Sweet., Berberis lycium Royle., Artemisia vulgaris L., Boerhavia procumbens Banks ex Roxb., and Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medic. Antibacterial activities of selected medicinal plants showed different response against bacterial species. Geranium collinum exhibited the maximum antibacterial activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus aerogenes respectively. While Persicaria barbata showed the maximum activity against Bacillus subtilus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa respectively. Antioxidant potential of these medicinal plants was investigated by using multiple approaches include DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay at modified experimental condition. Six conditions (15 min/25°C, 60 min/25°C, 120 min/25°C, 15 min/37°C, 60 min/37°C and 120 min/37°C) were selected. Higher activity was observed at 120min > 60min > 15min represent the time dependent phenomenon. Temperature also represents a significant impact on the antioxidant activity. However more antioxidant activity was observed at Human body temperature (37°C) as compared to room temperature (25°C). In ABTS (2, 2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoneline-6- xiv sulphonic acid) radical scavenging assay Geranium collinum represent the best activity. Hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity produced very good result as majority of plants produced significant results include Geranium collinum, Persicaria barbata, Clematis grata, and Rubia cordifolia. During phosphomolybdinum assay, Boerhavia procumbens, Artemisia vulgaris, Berberis lycium, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Persicaria barbata, and Rubia cordifolia showed the significant results. Persicaria barbata exhibited the best result for FRAP (Ferric ion reducing antioxidant power) assay. The medicinal plants screened in antileishmanial assay produced interesting results against Leishmania major. All plants produced highly significant results except the Capsella bursa-pastoris which showed closed response to Glucantime (standard drug). Antiglycation capabilities of the medicinal plants revealed that Persicaria barbata, Geranium collinum and Berberis lycium have significant potential to inhibit the formation of the advanced glycation end-products. In immunomodulatory studies Geranium collinum, Artemisia vulgaris, Boerhavia procumbens, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Clematis grata, Rubia cordifolia, and Persicaria barbata showed the significant immunomodulatory effects. Geranium collinum, Impatiens edgeworthi and Rubia cordifolia showed the significant activity against human prostate cancer cell line (PC 3). Geranium collinum was considered to present the significant result against the Human lung carcinoma (LU-1). In-case of human prostate adenocarcinoma (LNCaP-1), Geranium collinum and Geranium wallichianum produced the significant results. It is concluded that Geranium collinum, Persicaria barbata and Geranium wallichianum showed the best results of all performed activities in comparison to other plants in the study. Geranium collinum enjoy the least literature background and all the activities were performed for the first time for this plant. In some experiments it displayed better response than reference compound used in the study. Many of the biological activities were performed for the first time in case of various plants. The potential of medicinal plants involving the aspects of ethnomedicinal investigation, antioxidant activities, antiglycation assay, antileishmanial assay, immunomodulatory studies and anticancer studies would prove to be useful for pharmaceutical industry, students and scientific community for further research in this area.