Bangladesh Journal of 
Pharmacology 

 Volume: 12; Number 2; Year 2017 

 

Cite this article as: Nile SH, Keum YS. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and enzyme inhibitory activities of 10 
selected Unani herbs. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2017; 12: 162-64. 
 



 

Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and enzyme 
inhibitory activities of 10 selected Unani 
herbs   
 

Sir, 

The recognition of the Unani System of Medicine as an 
alternative system for health care by the World health 
Organization indicates its importance still present. This 
system uses herbal formulations that contain wide 
range of bioactive compounds such as phenolics, 
vitamins, carotenoids, and other endogenous metabo-
lites having different biological activities. Scientific 
evaluation of these plants is necessary to find out the 
novel compounds. Among the huge number of plants, 
only a limited numbers are screened (Nile and 
Khobragade, 2011; Kchaou et al., 2015; Nile and Park, 
2015). These studies mainly focus on the individual 
plant. Comparative studies are a few (Alam et al., 2014; 
Sellem et al, 2016). In the present letter, the antimicro-
bial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and enzyme 
inhibitory activity as well as phytochemical analysis of 
10 selected herbs (Rubia cordifolia, Rauwolfia serpentine, 
Origanum vulgare, Hyssopus officinalis, Cichorium intybus, 
Malva sylvestris, Portulaca oleracea, Aristolochia indica, 
Achyranthes aspera, Symplocos racemosa) are shown and 
compared. 

Each herb (100 g) was extracted with 500 mL of 
methanol for 5-10 hours using Soxhlet apparatus. An 
extraction time of 8 hours showed the optimum mass 
yield. The extract was filtered and concentrated to 
dryness under vacuum at 40°C and then subjected to 
lyophilization until a constant weight was obtained. 
Resulted residue was stored at 5°C for the purpose of 
further in vitro studies. The plant extracts were screened 
for total phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, and saponins 
using previously described methods (Zengin et al., 
2014). The antioxidant activity was assessed by FRAP 
and ORAC method (Nile and Park, 2015). Four anti-
inflammatory assays were performed viz: diene-
conjugate, -glucuronidase, hyaluronidase, and lipoxi-
dase inhibition (Nile and Khobragade, 2011). The 
enzyme inhibition activity checked against -amylase, 
-glucosidase, acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholi-
nesterase as per methods described previously (Zengin 
et al., 2016). 

The phytochemical study reveals the significant amount 
phytochemical constituents, namely phenolics, 

flavonoids, tannins, and saponins in all the studied 
plant species (Table I). The antioxidant radical 
scavenging results showed that P. oleracea exhibited 
highest activity (IC50 value by FRAP, 210.1 ± 9.1 μg/mL 
and by ORAC, 184.3 ± 7.4 μg/mL) followed by H. 
officinalis. All the plant extracts show an inhibitory 
activity against -amylase, -glucosidase, 
acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase. The 
differences observed for enzyme inhibitory activity 
could be explained by changes in the percent inhibition 
respect to plant species phytochemical composition. 
The enzyme inhibitory activities of each herb extract 
and probably all herbs has justified by the highest level 
of phenolics and enzyme inhibition. These findings are 
in accordance with the observed strong relationship 
between antioxidant activity and phenolics in studied 
plant-derived extracts (Fernandez-Lopez et al., 2003; 
Alam et al., 2014). According to the findings for 
methanolic extracts of six cultivars of P. oleracea, the 
antioxidant activity is mainly attributed to the 
hydrophobic character of the antioxidant molecules, 
while the total phenolic content measures both types of 
antioxidants, hydrophobic and hydrophilic (Lim and 
Quah 2007). Fathiazad et al (2011) showed that the H. 
officinalis acts as a culinary herb and medicinal plant 
which may be considered as natural food ingredients to 
replace synthetic antioxidants due to its biologically 
active chemical constituents. The results obtained 
suggested that the herbs used in Unani System of 
Medicine demonstrated a significant level phyto-
chemicals with different biological activities including 
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and enzyme inhibitory 
activities which were utilized for future drug 
development. 

 

Acknowledgment: This research was supported by KU-

Research Professor Program-2017, Konkuk University, Seoul, 

Republic of Korea    
 

Shivraj Hariram Nile and Young Soo Keum  

Department of Bioresources and Food Science, College of Life and 
Environmental Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 143701, South 
Korea. 

Corresponding author:  
email: nileshivraj@gmail.com, nileshivraj@konkuk.ac.kr  
 

References 

Alam MA, Juraimi AS, Rafii MY, Hamid AA, Aslani F, 

A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2017; 12: 162-164 

Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info 

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International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index  

ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v12i2.31843 

Letter to the Editor 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, distribute and perform the work. 
You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor 

mailto:nileshivraj@gmail.com
mailto:nileshivraj@konkuk.ac.kr


 

 

 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2017; 12: 162-164 163 

Table I 

Phytochemical analysis, anti-oxidant and enzyme inhibitory activities of the extracts of selected herbs   

Botanical name Rubia 
cordifo-

lia 

Rauwolfia 
serpentina 

Origa-
num 

vulgare 

Hyssopus 
officinalis 

Cicho-
rium 

intybus 

Malva 
syl-

vestris 

Portu-
laca 

oleracea 

Aris-
tolochia 
indica 

Achy-
ranthes 
aspera 

Sym-
plocos 

racemosa 

Unani name Majeet
h 

Asrol Mir-
zanjosh

a 

Zufa Hin-
daba 

Khu-
bazi 

Khurfah Zara-
vand 

Chirch
ita 

Lodh 
Pathani 

Phytochemical analysis  

Phenolics 
(mg GAEs/g 
extract) 

41.4 
(2.0) 

28.6 
(1.2) 

56.2 
(2.2) 

52.3 
(2.0) 

25.3 
(1.3) 

40.4 
(2.1) 

50.6 
(2.0) 

32.9 
(1.2) 

22.9 
(1.3) 

35.2 
(1.0) 

Flavonoids 
(mg REs/g 
extract) 

52.6 
(1.1) 

39.6 
(1.3) 

71.6 
(2.1) 

66.5 
(2.5) 

36.1 
(2.0) 

50.4 
(1.5) 

65.4 
(2.4) 

42.5 
(1.3) 

33.8 
(1.1) 

45.7 
(1.1) 

Tannins (mg 
CEs/g extract) 

36.2 
(1.9) 

24.9 
(1.0) 

52.1 
(1.1) 

48.5 
(2.0) 

24.3 
(1.1) 

36.5 
(1.1) 

45.9 
(1.3) 

30.1 
(1.0) 

20.2 
(1.0) 

30.1 
(0.9) 

Saponins 
(mg QAEs/g 
extract) 

2.8 
(0.3) 

3.1 
(0.2) 

15.8 
(0.9) 

18.6 
(0.1) 

8.6 
(0.1) 

10.3 
(0.2) 

14.9 
(0.2) 

5.6 
(0.9) 

5.2 
(0.1) 

8.9 
(0.5) 

Anti-oxidant activity IC50 (μg/mL)  

FRAP 125.6 
(5.1) 

80.2 
(3.4) 

152.8 
(6.7) 

205.8 
(8.3) 

74.6 
(3.5) 

110.5 
(7.1) 

210.1 
(9.1) 

91.5 
(3.1) 

75.1 
(2.6) 

105.2 
(4.1) 

ORAC 96.3 
(2.7) 

60.8 
(1.8) 

120.5 
(9.7) 

175.1 
(8.1) 

56.2 
(1.8) 

89.8 
(5.4) 

184.3 
(7.4) 

71.6 
(2.7) 

58.6 
(2.9) 

80.1 
(3.1) 

Anti-inflammatory activity inhibition (%)  

-Glucuro-
nidase 

58.5 
(1.2) 

31.3 
(1.1) 

68.9 
(1.2) 

78.2 
(1.2) 

25.5 
(1.1) 

52.4 
(1.2) 

80.1 
(1.2) 

42.6 
(1.1) 

31.2 
(1.2) 

48.1 
(1.2) 

Diene-conjugate 61.3 
(0.3) 

35.2 
(0.1) 

71.6 
(0.2) 

80.1 
(0.3) 

30.8 
(0.1) 

58.5 
(0.2) 

83.8 
(0.3) 

46.8 
(0.1) 

34.8 
(0.2) 

53.4 
(0.3) 

Hyaluronidase 40.8 
(2.1) 

32.8 
(1.0) 

64.8 
(1.4) 

70.2 
(2.1) 

20.7 
(1.0) 

45.6 
(1.4) 

73.6 
(2.1) 

25.9 
(1.0) 

22.6 
(1.4) 

41.6 
(2.1) 

Lipoxidase 
inhibition 

52.7 
(1.5) 

38.4 
(1.3) 

71.2 
(1.1) 

76.1 
(1.5) 

28.2 
(1.3) 

52.2 
(1.1) 

74.8 
(1.5) 

30.5 
(1.3) 

27.4 
(1.1) 

46.9 
(1.5) 

Enzyme inhibitory activities  

-Amylase 
(mmol ACEs/g 
extract) 

4.7 
(0.1) 

3.5 
(0.2) 

6.6 
(0.3) 

7.2 
(0.2) 

2.6 
(0.2) 

4.8 
(0.3) 

7.8 
(0.3) 

4.3 
(0.2) 

3.2 
(0.1) 

4.5 
(0.2) 

-Glucosidase 
(mmol ACEs/g 
extract) 

7.2 
(0.1) 

4.3 
(0.3) 

8.1 
(0.2) 

8.6 
(0.3) 

3.2 
(0.3) 

5.8 
(0.2) 

8.5 
(0.2) 

4.6 
(0.3) 

3.5 
(0.2) 

5.2 
(0.6) 

Acetylcholines-
terase (mg GA-
LAEs/g extract) 

4.5 
(0.1) 

1.3 
(0.1) 

3.8 
(0.2) 

4.4 
(0.2) 

2.1 
(0.3) 

2.9 
(0.2) 

4.2 
(0.1) 

2.7 
(0.1) 

1.9 
(0.2) 

3.2 
(0.1) 

Butyrylcholin-
esterase (mg 
GALAEs/g 
extract) 

2.5 
(0.2) 

0.8 
(0.2) 

1.0 
(0.2) 

2.5 
(0.2) 

0.9 
(0.3) 

1.0 
(0.3) 

2.5 
(0.2) 

0.7 
(0.1) 

0.6 
(0.2) 

1.2 
(0.3) 

Data are the mean and SD (within the parenthesis) 



 

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164 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2017; 12: 162-164 


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