Musa Maikudi Idris, Aminu Muhammad and Khadijah Aminu Mahmoud

Keywords: Cleome gynandra, cytotoxicity, DPPH, phosphomolybdate

Abstract

Background: Cleome gynandra (Cleomaceae) is a plant species distributed throughout most parts of tropical regions of the world and has a number of medicinal uses; the plant is used to treat typhoid, diarrhea, ear pain and anemia. Objective: To investigate the cytotoxicity and antioxidant potentials of ethanol, n-hexane, chloroform and 60% aqueous methanol extracts of Cleome gynandra. Method: Air dried powdered plant material (500 g) was defatted using n-hexane (2 L), the residue was percolated with ethanol (2 L) for 10 days. The ethanol extract was partitioned using n-hexane, chloroform and 60% aqueous methanol gradient. In this study, the antioxidant activities of the extracts of C.gynandra were evaluated using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and phosphomolybdate techniques. The cytotoxic activities of the plant were investigated using Artemia salina (brine shrimp) bioassay. Results: The extracts showed significant antioxidant activity against DPPH radical with IC50 values of 137.5, 370.3 µg/mL for aqueous methanol, and ethanol fraction respectively while the IC50 of n-hexane and chloroform fraction is >1000 µg/mL. All the test samples have shown strong activity in the brine shrimp assay with LC50 values of 7.19, 14.80, 72.09 and 76.09 µg/mL for n-hexane, ethanol chloroform and aqueous methanol fraction respectively. Conclusion: All the tested extracts showed significant antioxidant and cytotoxic properties, suggesting anti[1]inflammatory and anti-tumor potency of the plant.