Abstract

Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae have great medicinal importance. Keeping this in view, the present study was conducted to evaluate the enzyme inhibition and antioxidant potential of some members of both families. Bidens biternata (Family: Asteraceae), Senecio macrophylla(Family: Asteraceae) and Croton sparsiflorus (Family: Euphorbiaceae) were extracted in methanol and partitioned with n-hexane, chloroform and n-butanol successively. Acetylcholine esterase and antioxidant activities were carried using reported methods. It was concluded that butanolic extract of C. sparsiflorus exhibited maximum enzyme inhibition activity (95.0 ± 2.0% with IC₅₀ = 7 ± 1 µg/ml), while all other extracts showed significant activity except n-hexane extract of S. macrophylla which remained inactive. Total phenolic contents in the extracts ranged from 20 ± 1 to 720 ± 6 mg GAE/g of extract and highest phenols were present in the butanol extract of S. macrophylla. The butanolic extract of B. biternata showed highest antiradical activity (88.9 ± 2.2%, IC₅₀ = 55 ± 3 µg/ml) and FRAPactivity 8.98 ± 0.11 µM/g of the extract. The n-hexane extract of B. biternata and S. macrophylla showed very low response in 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) activity respectively.

Key words:    Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition.