Anti-oxidative and Anti-inflammatory Potential of Aqueous and Ethanol Extract of Leaves and Roots of Napoleona imperialis

Napoleona imperialis is a wild plant commonly found in South eastern part of Nigeria which is mostly used for the treatment of wounds. The aim of this research was to evaluate the in vitro anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory potential of aqueous and ethanol extracts of leaves and roots of Napoleona imperialis. The DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging potential of the extracts were evaluated with ascorbic acid as standard. Lipoxidase activity, membrane stabilization and percentage inhibition of acetylcholinesterase was assayed using spectrophotometric method with reference drugs as standard. The DPPH radical scavenging potential of the aqueous leaf extract was observed to be maximum at a concentration of 150 μg/ml which is similar to the result obtained for ascorbic acid. There was a statistically significant difference in the ABTS radical scavenging potential of the ethanol leaf extract (23.67±0.61) and ethanol root extract (32.54±0.84) at 10 µg/ml when compared with ascorbic acid (9.90±0.26). The ethanol leaf extract showed a significantly higher percentage inhibition of lipoxidase activity at 100 μg/ml (20.88±0.77) and 150 μg/ml (31.20±0.80) when compared to reference drug (26.28±0.68 and 31.67±0.82 respectively). Furthermore, the ethanol leaf extract demonstrated a percentage membrane stabilization activity of 41.78±1.08 and 43.65±1.12 at 20 μg/ml and 50 μg/ml respectively compared with the standard drug diclofenac (38.35±0.99 and 41.86±1.08 respectively). The present study therefore suggests that extract of N. imperialis has good anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory potential and could be ameliorated in diseases due to inflammation and oxidation.