Evaluation of Antitubercular activity and Hepatoprotective activity of Aristolochia bracteolata – in vitro study

Abstract

India, with increased burden of tuberculosis (TB) cases, mandates the search for alternative antimycobacterial drugs. Medicinal plants have the potential to act against the mycobacterium with less or no side effects like hepatotoxicity caused by the most anti-TB drugs. This study is aimed to investigate the antimycobacterial activity of various extracts of whole plant, Aristolochia bracteolata against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and hepatoprotective activity against anti-TB drug induced hepatotoxicity in HepG2 cell line. Microplate Alamar Blue Assay (MABA) is used to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of samples for antimycobacterial activity and 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay to determine the effect of extract and standard, silymarin on isoniazid (INH) induced toxicity in HepG2 cells, based on the cell viability. The whole plant was extracted using petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and ethanol based on the polarity of solvents in the Soxhlet extractor successively and their yield value is determined. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of constituents like alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, saponin, steroids, carbohydrates and proteins. The results of MIC on Mycobacterium showed that the petroleum ether extract possess good antimycobacterial activity at 25µg/ml. It also showed good hepatoprotective activity against INH induced toxicity on increasing concentrations. So, the plant has the potential to act as adjunct to TB chemotherapy.