Assessment of Antioxidant Potential and Acute Toxicity Studies of Whole Plant Extract of Pergularia Daemia (Forsk)

BACKGROUND: Pergularia daemia (Asclepiadacea) is a fetid- smelling perennial herb growing well along the river bang and road sides of India. Naturally the plant has powerful antioxidants including polyphenols, flavanoids, steroids and terpenoids. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant potential and to determine the median lethal dose (LD(50)) of crude ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Pergularia daemia. The plant Pergularia daemia possess effective scavenging activity against 2, 2' azino bis (3 ethylbenzothiazoline 6 sulfonic acid (ABTS), nitric oxide and reducing power radicals at different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400 & 500 µg/mL) of both extracts. RESULTS: From the above in vitro assay we have exposed that the methanolic extract exert higher antioxidant activity at 400 µg/mL than ethyl acetate extract. Acute toxicity study revealed that the extracts showed no signs of toxicity upto a dose level of 2500 mg/kg b.wt. CONCLUSION: Thus our findings provide that both extracts of Pergularia daemia possess a strong antioxidant capacity and are relatively has high margin of safety.