Phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of trapa natans L

Abstract

Trapa natans L. which belongs to the family Trapaceae is a small herb well known for its medicinal properties and is widely used worldwide. Trapa bispinosa or Trapa natans is an important plant of Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine which is used in the problems of stomach, genitourinary system, liver, kidney, and spleen. The whole plant is used in gonorrhea, menorrhagia, and other genital affections. It is useful in diarrhea, dysentery, ophthalmopathy, ulcers, and wounds. The objective has been to explore and evaluate the Phytochemicals, showed the presence of Reducing sugar, Carbohydrate, alkaloid, Tannin, Steroids, Flavonoid, Saponin, Glycosides, and antioxidant Neuropharmacological , and antidiarrheal activities to provide a suitable lead, which may be utilized in future to peruse a new line of investigation, based on the combined approach of both exploitation and exploration. From the study of antidiarrheal activity it was found that methanolic extract of whole plant of Trapa natans L. at a dose 500mg/kg & 1000 mg/kg exhibited significant defecation inhibition of by 66% and 77% while the standard drug lopiramide inhibition was found to be 87% at the dose of 5 mg/kg body weight. The methanolic extract of whole plant of Trapa natans L. showed promising DPPH free radical scavenging activity. The positive control ascorbic acid of which IC50 value was 2.59 μg/mL. On the other hand, the Crude methanolic extract of whole plant showed promising DPPH free radical scavenging activity with the IC50 value 14.13 μg/mL. It was found that all the extracts possess central nervous system depressant activity as indicated by decreased exploratory behavior in mice. This study demonstrated that folk medicine can be as effective as modern medicine to combat pathogenic microorganisms. The obtained results provide a support for the use of this plant in traditional medicine.