Phytochemical and Biological Investigations of Different Partitioned Extracts of Ficus heteropleura Blume (Family: Moraceae) Leaves

Abstract

Ficus heteropleura Blume is a plant of the Moraceae family with high medicinal value. Therefore, the plant leaves' fractional extracts have been subjected to preliminary screenings for phytoconstituents and pharmacological studies. The phytochemical analysis was done after fractionating the ethanolic extract with n-hexane, chloroform, and hydro-alcohol. Then, the TLC method, DPPH radical scavenging, disc diffusion, membrane stabilization activity, heat-induced hemolysis, human blood clot lysis, and starch-iodine method were performed. The chemical investigation resulted in the identification of glycosides, amides, reducing sugars, flavonoids, phenols, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, gums, and steroids from the different extracts of the leaves of Ficus heteropleura Blume. In the antioxidant assay, hydro-alcoholic, chloroform, and n-hexane extracts at the dose of 100μg/ml produced significant inhibition of 76.11% (IC₅₀ = 46.47 µg/ml), 72.83% (IC₅₀ = 54.72 µg/ml), and 61.83% (IC₅₀ = 77.95 µg/ml), respectively, as compared to the reference standard drug, ascorbic acid, 85.01% (IC₅₀ = 32.22 µg/ml). However, only moderate anti-inflammatory activity was found in hydro-alcoholic extract (IC₅₀ = 4.24 µg/ml). The extract also showed moderate thrombolytic and membrane-stabilizing effects. Hydro-alcoholic extract had antifungal activity against only Candida albicans (11 mm). However, chloroform plant extract exhibited significant antifungal activity against all included fungi. In the anti-diabetic study, significant inhibition of amylase activity was found by the hydro-alcoholic (73.33%) and chloroform (83.3%) extracts, respectively, whereas the n-hexane was found to have moderate activity (35.44%) compared to acarbose. Therefore, before isolation, characterization, and determination of the mechanism of action of the screened pharmacological activities, further investigation is needed.