PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION AND IN VITRO BIOACTIVITY ANALYSIS OF LINDENBERGIA INDICA
Lidenbergia indica Vatke or wall lindenbergia belongs to the family Scrophulariaceae which includes a number of ethnopharmacologically important Himalayan medicinal plants. The juice of the plant is used in chronic bronchitis and skin eruptions. The crude ethyl acetate extract of the whole plants of Lidenbergia indica led to the isolation of two flavonoids, luteolin and apigenin, methyl-4-methoxy cinnamate and β-sitosterol by different chromatographic techniques. The petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions were evaluated for biological properties using established methods. In vitro antioxidant activity was studied with DPPH radical scavenging method using butylated hydroxyl anisole as standard. The ethyl acetate fraction of the plant showed prominent free radical scavenging activity. The petroleum ether soluble fraction of Lindenbergia indica demonstrated highest thrombolytic activity. However, the other partitionates i.e. chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous extract showed minimum thrombolytic activity compared to the standard streptokinase. In the cytotoxic activity assay using brine shrimp, the petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate fraction showed significant lethality whereas aqueous fraction showed negligible lethal activity as compared to standard vincristine sulphate. No antimicrobial activity was observed for the petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions against all the microorganisms tested using tetracycline, levofloxacin, azithromycin and ciprofloxacin as standard.