In vitro study of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antihyperglycemic activity of medicinal plants
Paper Details
In vitro study of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antihyperglycemic activity of medicinal plants
Abstract
As the main goal of this study was the verification of three different medicinal plants like Chamaecostus cuspidatus, Aloe vera and Terminalia chebula in form of the crude extract obtained by two different solvents such as aqueous and hydrated ethanol in terms of in vitro antioxidant capacity, antihyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory activities. Antioxidant activity was assessed by reducing power assay, DPPH radical scavenging assay, and hydrogen peroxide scavenging assay at different concentrations ranging from 100 to 500 µg/mL. Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by protein denaturation method using Diclofenac sodium as standard at 100-500 µg/mL. Antidiabetic potential was determined by aldose reductase inhibition, α-amylase inhibition, and α-glucosidase inhibition assays at 20-100 µg/mL using Acarbose as standard. All the extracts showed a concentration-dependent increase in activity across all the assays. In antioxidant assays, hydro-ethanolic extracts exhibited higher activity compared to aqueous extracts. In the anti-inflammatory assay, A. vera hydro-ethanolic extract and C. cuspidatus aqueous extract demonstrated the highest activity at the maximum tested concentration and showed activity comparable to the standard drug Diclofenac sodium. In the antihyperglycemic assays, T. chebula ethanolic extract exhibited maximum α-glucosidase inhibition with the lowest IC₅₀ value. All the plant extracts showed higher α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition than the standard Acarbose at the highest concentration. A. vera ethanolic extract showed maximum aldose reductase inhibition among all the extracts tested. These plants can be considered as potential candidates for the development of herbal formulations for the management of diabetes and its complications.
Amudha N, Magalingam R, Selvam K, Ambikapathy V, Prakash P. 2024. Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and its antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of Bacopa monnieri L. International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 50, 223–231.
Azmathullah R, Dhanalakshmi P, Gokul D, Sudhakar V. 2024. A study on in-vitro anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of aqueous extract of Terminalia chebula. IJPQA 15(2), 907–910.
Bag A, Bhattacharyya SK, Bharati P, Pal NK. 2013a. Antidiabetic activity of Terminalia chebula. Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology and Research 4(3), 170–174.
Bag A, Bhattacharyya SK, Chattopadhyay RR. 2013b. The development of Terminalia chebula Retz. (Combretaceae) in clinical research. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine 3, 244–252.
Basu R, Dasgupta S, Babu SN, Noor A. 2023. Medicinal plants in the Indian traditional medicine and current practices. In Bioprospecting of Tropical Medicinal Plants, 253–286. Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland.
Begum T, Gogoi A, Gupta T, Lal M. 2025. A comprehensive review on Chamaecostus cuspidatus and its botanical aspects, therapeutic potentials, phytochemistry, pharmacological properties and future prospects. Pharmacological Research – Natural Products 8, 100293.
Benny K, Benny L. 2011. Anti-inflammatory activity of Costus igneus leaves. International Journal of Green Pharmacy 5(2), 135–138.
Bhat RA, Hakeem KR, Dervash MA. 2021. Phytomedicine: A treasure of pharmacologically active products from plants. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Bischoff H. 1994. Pharmacology of α-glucosidase inhibition. European Journal of Clinical Investigation 24(Suppl. 3), 3–10.
Devadharshini SK, Arockia A, Brahma N, Kalpana R, Sugumar V. 2024. Studies on in vitro antimicrobial, anticancer, and anti-oxidative inflammatory response of methanolic tuber extracts derived from Terminalia chebula. Cureus 16(7), e63930.
Gowthaman K, Prakash P, Ambikapathy V, Babu S, Panneerselvam A. 2025. Crinum asiaticum L. bulb extracts as a potential source of novel antimicrobial agents: An in-vitro study. International Journal of Biosciences 27(1), 194–203.
Gupta A. 2010. Anti-inflammatory activity of Terminalia chebula. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 130(1), 219–221.
Hu Y, Xu J, Hu Q. 2003. Evaluation of antioxidant potential of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) extracts. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 51(26), 7788–7791.
ElrayahYousif YI, Venkatesan N, Vishwanath BA, Suchitra D. 2020. In-vitro and in-vivo anti-diabetic activity of various extract of the Anisomeles malabarica (L) leaves. International Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences 11(3).
International Diabetes Federation (IDF). 2021. IDF Diabetes Atlas. 10th ed. International Diabetes Federation, Brussels, Belgium.
Jayasree D, Mohan CK. 2018. Anti hyperglycemic evaluation of Terminalia chebula leaves. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 10(11), 43–48.
Jose S, Thankappan S. 2023. Evaluation of in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of leaves of Terminalia chebula Retz. (Combretaceae). Asian Journal of Biological and Life Sciences 12(3), 558–563.
Kannan P, Ramadevi SR, Waheeta H. 2009. Antibacterial and antioxidant activity of Terminalia chebula. Advances in Biological Research 3(3–4), 89–93.
Kathirvel A, Sujatha V. 2012. In vitro assessment of antioxidant and antibacterial properties of Terminalia chebula Retz. leaves. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine 2(2), S788–S795.
Makena W, Nwankwo M, Idris A, Dangoji DP, Ogbe A, Ayuba JT, Aja PM, Etukudo EM. 2026. Antidiabetic, antioxidant, and metabolic effects of Aloe vera in diabetic rodent models: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Phytomedicine Plus 6(3).
Mizushima Y, Kobayashi M. 1968. Interaction of anti-inflammatory drugs with serum proteins. Nature 219, 970–972.
Nilsson K, Sangster M, Konijnendijk CC. 2010. Forests, trees and human health and well-being: Introduction. In Forests, Trees and Human Health, 1–19. Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Nishath TK, Mathavi P, Ambikapathy V, Prakash P, Panneerselvam A. 2025. GC-MS and FTIR analysis of phytochemical profiling of some medicinal plants. Indian Journal of Natural Sciences 16(89), 92992–93002.
Oguntibeju OO. 2018. Medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory activities from selected countries and regions of Africa. Journal of Inflammation Research 11, 307–317.
Oyaizu M. 1986. Studies on products of browning reaction. Antioxidative activities of browning reaction products. Japanese Journal of Nutrition 44, 307–315.
Patel SK, Shutter AK, Patil R, Desangi A, Malali V, Patil J, Patil S, Das KK, Parvatikar PP. 2022. In-vitro antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic effects of different solvent extraction Terminalia chebula, Terminalia billerica, Phyllanthus emblica. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology 15(7).
Sharma P, Singh R, Tiwari V. 2023. Aloe vera mitigates hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome 17(5).
Shetty AK. 2010. Antidiabetic and hypolipidemic effects of Costus igneus leaves in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Journal of Medicinal Food 13(1), 1–8.
Vaghela JS, Sisodia SS. 2011. In vitro antioxidant activity of Terminalia chebula fruit extracts. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology 4(12), 1835–1843.
Van Heyningen R. 1959. The sorbitol pathway and its role in diabetic complications. FEBS Letters 2(1), 57–60.
Weinberg Sibony R, Segev O, Dor S, Raz I. 2024. Overview of oxidative stress and inflammation in diabetes. Journal of Diabetes 16(10).
Yilmaz MA. 2020. Simultaneous quantitative screening of 53 phytochemicals in 33 species of medicinal and aromatic plants: A detailed, robust and comprehensive LC–MS/MS method validation. Industrial Crops and Products 149.
T. K. Nishath*, P. Mathavi, V. Ambikapathy, P. Prakash, A. Panneerselvam, 2026. In vitro study of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antihyperglycemic activity of medicinal plants. Int. J. Biosci., 29(3), 32-43.
Copyright © 2026 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.