Pharmacological Screening of Sonneratla Caseolarls – A Mangrove Plant from Bagerhat Region, the Sundarbans, Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the hypoglecemic, analgesic and cytotoxic activities for the methanolic (85%) extracts of fruits, leaves and barks obtained from Sonneratia caseolaris. Hypoglycemic tests were done on -Swiss albino mice which were administered with the extracts of S. caseolaris at the dose of 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight, respectively in different experimental groups. The mice were sacrificed followed by oral glucose treatment and their sera were collected for glucose level analysis. The results showed that the extracts of S. caseolaris were able to decrease blood glucose levels. Especially, leaf extracts showed significant activity in comparison to fruit and bark extracts. In the acetic acid-induced writhing test, the leaf extracts at the dose of 400 mg/kg showed 52.4 % inhibition of writhing, which was significant in comparison to 0.1% acetic acid induction. On the other hand, fruits and barks extracts of S.caseolaris did not show response in this regard. The cytotoxic activities of crude extracts (LC50) was determined using brine shrimp lethality bioassay was found to be O.21± 0.19μg/ml. The concentration at which 90% mortality (LC90) of brine shrimp nauplii occurred was obtained by extrapolation & the value was 160μg/ml. The crude leaf extract showed strong lethality against the brine shrimp nauplii. These results are in good agreement with the usage of this plant in antitumor, antimicrobial or pesticidal activities in ethnomedicine.