In vitro anti-inflammatory evaluation and GC-MS identified constituents of Hippeastrum amaryllis flower extract

Abstract

This study investigated the erythrocyte membrane stabilization and anti-denaturant activities of Hippeastrum amaryllis flower extract and fractions; and profiled the constituents of the n-hexane active fraction using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) hyphenated techniques. These were with the view to determining the anti-inflammatory potential of the flower extract and identifying its therapeutic constituent(s) for management of inflammatory conditions. The H. amaryllis pulverized flower sample was extracted with 80% (v/v) methanol for 72 hrs and filtered. The filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to obtain the crude methanol extract. The crude extract was suspended in distilled water and partitioned in turn using n-hexane and dichloromethane (DCM) to obtain two solvent fractions. These were separately concentrated in vacuo to produce n-hexane and DCM fractions, respectively. Erythrocyte membrane stabilization and antidenaturant assays were performed on the crude and fractions. The n-hexane fraction that showed the highest antiinflammatory potency was profiled using GC-MS method. Results showed that the percentage erythrocyte membrane stabilizing activity of n-hexane fraction (81.26 ± 0.00%) was significantly higher than the DCM fraction (20.14 ± 0.001%) and crude extract (15.57 ± 0.001%); and competed favourably with the standard agent, diclofenac sodium (84.78 ± 0.003%). Also, the n-hexane fraction elicited significant anti-denaturant activity (93.62 ± 0.01%) than DCM fraction (72.91 ±0.001%) and diclofenac sodium (86.20 ± 0.00%). The GC-MS result of the n-hexane fraction identified fifteen (15) compounds in which oleic acid (16.39%), campesterol (14.34%), n-hexadecanoic acid (13.68%) and 11-octadecanoic acid (9.32%) were the major constituents. These compounds have been reported as anti-inflammatory compounds which supported the finding of the study. The study concluded that H. amaryllis flower extract had anti-inflammatory property which could be attributed to oleic acid, campesterol and n-hexadecanoic acid.