Bangladesh is abundant in medicinal plants. The bioactive compounds in medicinal plants provide novel therapeutic opportunity of improving human health. But, the benefit-risk balance is usually less considered during formulation of traditional medicine. However, the plants that we included in this study are not studied regarding their hemolytic and anti-venom properties. Thus, we aimed to evaluate and compare the hemolytic activity, antioxidant activity, and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzyme neutralization efficacy of aqueous and methanolic extracts of eight known medicinal plants including Asparagus racemosus (root), Withania somnifera (root), Syzygium cumini (leaf), Psidium guajava (leaf), Basella alba (leaf and seed), Morus indica (leaf), M. laevigata (leaf), and M. latifolia (leaf). The results of the hemolytic activity test suggested that the methanolic extracts of S. cumini, P. guajava, B. alba (leaf and seed), M. indica, M. laevigata, and M. latifolia showed significantly higher hemolytic activity compared to their aqueous extracts. The methanolic extracts of A. racemosus, W. somnifera, P. guajava, M. laevigata, and M. latifolia showed remarkable antioxidant activity. Moreover, the results of the PLA2 enzyme neutralization activity test revealed that both aqueous and methanolic extracts of P. guajava, S. cumini, and B. alba (leaf) have significant PLA2 neutralization capacity. Altogether, the aqueous extracts of all plants, except A. racemosus root, have ignorable hemolytic effect. Additionally, P. guajava and S. cumini leaf aqueous extracts have promising PLA2 inhibitory effect and may become the potential source of bioactive compounds for anti-venom drug development.
Key words: Antioxidant activity, Bio-active compound, Hemolytic activity, Medicinal plant, PLA₂ enzyme
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