Indigenous Myanmar medicinal plants and comparison of their in vitro antioxidant, antiglycation, and antimicrobial activities

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential biological activities of 23 ethanolic extracts from 19 traditional medicinal plants from Myanmar.

Methods: Antioxidant activity was determined using DPPH, nitric oxide and superoxide free radical scavenging assays. Antiglycation activity was studied with non-enzymatic protein glycation assay. Total phenolic content was measured compared with the gallic acid standard curve. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated against six clinically important bacteria by agar well-diffusion method.

Results: Among the studied plant extracts, AGE228 (Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels. seed) was the promising medicinal plant for oxidative stress-related disease as it showed high antioxidant activities with the percent inhibition of 75.80 ± 1.02 and 98.45 ± 1.12 for DPPH and NO radical scavenging assays. The extract AGE223 (Tamarindus indica Linn. bark) also showed the high antioxidant activity for SO radical scavenging assay with the percent inhibition of 89.35 ± 5.72. These two extracts contained the highest phenolic content with 233.85 ± 0.04 and 214.47 ± 0.01 mgGAE/g of extract, respectively. AGE221 (Terminalia chebula Retz. branch) was the best AGE inhibitor with the percent inhibition of 79.06 ± 1.90. Most of the selected extracts showed antimicrobial activity. Among them, the antimicrobial activity of AGE232 (Phyllanthus distichus Muell. fruit) was comparable to the standard antibiotic, Chloramphenicol.

Conclusion: The results confirmed that the ethanolic extracts of traditionally used medicinal plants could be effective not only for decreasing the oxidative stress and glycation end-products formation in glycation related diseases but also for treating the infectious diseases.

Keywords:

• 2
• 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl
• Nitric oxide
• Superoxide
• Total phenolic content
• Anti-infective agents

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Diabetes, a non-communicable and chronic disease, nowadays becomes a high threatening disease both in developed and developing countries although the death rate is higher in low- and middle-income countries. Medicinal plants having antioxidant and antiglycation activities are the interesting source for safe and effective medicine for diabetes. Moreover, many medicinal plants have wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity and most of the antibiotics used are of plant origin. The present study focuses on the in vitro antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial activity of selected medicinal plants form Myanmar which are traditionally well known for the treatment of diabetes. The results found that the ethanolic extract of traditionally used medicinal plants could be effective not only for decreasing the oxidative stress and glycation end-products formation in glycation related diseases but also for treating the infectious diseases.

Competing interests

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support for this research work to Biotechnology Research Department, Ministry of Education, Myanmar (Project Grant No. Bio/NPT/20/2013/034). The authors would like to extend their gratitude to Dr. Soe Myint Aye, Professor, Department of Botany, Mandalay University for botanical identification, the Public Health Laboratory (PHL) and Department of Biotechnology, Mandalay Technological University (MTU), Mandalay, Myanmar for providing the bacterial strains used in this research work.

Cover Image

Source: Author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Biotechnology Research Department, Ministry of Education, Myanmar [Project Grant No. Bio/NPT/20/2013/034].

Notes on contributors

Htet Htet Win

The author is now working as a Senior Research Investigator at the Pharmaceutical Research Lab, Biotechnology Research Department under the Ministry of Education, Myanmar. The missions of the lab are investigation of the traditionally used medicinal plants for their bioactivities such as antioxidant, antiglycation, antidiabetes, hepatoprotective and antimicrobial activities against the antibiotic resistant bacteria and bioassay guided isolation and identification of the active compounds from the most potent traditional medicinal plants. The present research report is the first step screening on the bioactivities of some medicinal plants in Myanmar. Based on the findings in this report, the author will be further exploring the in vivo antidiabetes activity using mice model and compound isolation from the best plants.

Dr. Htet Htet Win has done all the in vitro antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial assays used for this research and written the manuscript.

The Su Moe

Dr. The Su Moe has contributed for the experimental design, has done all the assays together with Dr. Htet Htet Win and done the final approval of the manuscript.

Thin Thin Hlaing

Dr. Thin Thin Hlaing, Mrs. Myint Myint San and Ms. Zar Kyi Win have done all the work for the collection and extraction of medicinal plants for this research.

Myint Myint San

Dr. Myint Myint San has carried out the Total Phenolic Content Determination for this selected medicinal plant extracts.