Antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of <em>Pavetta crassicaulis</em> Bremek. leaf crude extract and its isolated pure compound

Abstract

<em>Pavetta crassicaulis </em> Bremek<em>.</em>. (Family Rubiaceae), an important ethnomedicinal shrub/small tree, belonging to the family Rubiaceae, grows up to 4 meters tall. The plant is endemic to peninsular India. Plant parts have many medicinal properties used in the treatment of arthritis, boils and itches, hemorrhoidal pains, dropsy, epilepsy, urinary complaints, and anticephalagic. Fruits used as anthelmintic and flowers are eaten fried. The antioxidant experiments conducted were metal chelating activity, superoxide radicals, hydroxyl radical, DPPH radicals, ABTS radical scavenging assays. <em>In vitro</em> cytotoxicity was tested in DLA and EAC cancer cells by using Trypan blue dye exclusion technique and MTT assay. The results revealed that the leaf ethanolic crude extract of the <em>Pavetta crassicaulis</em> Bremek. has appreciable radical scavenging activity and its extracted pure compound, 2-Tert-Butyl-4,6-Bis(3,5-Di-Tert-Butyl-4-Hydroxybenzyl)Phenol, showed appreciable radical scavenging activity but not as good as the standards used. The cytotoxic experiment revealed that leaf ethanolic extract has considerable cytotoxicity activity and its pure compound 2-Tert-Butyl-4,6-Bis(3,5-Di-Tert-Butyl-4-Hydroxybenzyl)Phenol also showed noticeable activity which is not comparable to the standard Curcumin.