Biology and Medicine

Abstract

Screening of selected medicinal plants for urease inhibitory activity

Tahseen Ghous, Kalsoom Akhtar, Faiz-Ul-Hassan Nasim, Muhammad Aziz Choudhry

In this study, we have investigated antiurease activity of eleven Et-OH and five Me-OH extracts of medicinal plants collected from the State of Kashmir. Selection of the plants was made on the basis of their uses by local people and herbalists for the treatment of different ailments including stomach problems. In the study Et-OH extracts of Sussuria lappa, Malva parviflora, Solanum nigrum, and Melia azadirachta were found inactive or showed low activity at final of concentration 200μg/ 5ml. While Et-OH extracts of Taraxacum officinale, Achillea millefolium, Aristolachia bracteata, Eucalyptus globules, Adhatoda zeylanica, Cuscuta reflexa and Mentha longifolia showed stronger action against urease activity. The IC50 values for these extracts were 33.33*, 94.24, 68.62, 66.91, 83.33, 89.19 and 57.47*μg/ 5ml.
Among Me-OH extracts, Achillea millefolium and Aristolachia bracteata demonstrated stronger antiurease activity IC50=60.29* and 58.73*μg/5ml. Mentha longifolia, Solanum nigrum and Melia azadirachta showed no action against urease activity at 200μg/ 5ml. Results of this study illustrate that most of the studied extracts exhibited reasonable antiurease activity, however, ethanolic extracts of Taraxacum officinale, Mentha longifolia and methanolic extracts of Achillea millefolium and Aristolachia bracteata showed significant inhibition potential. Our findings may help to explain the beneficial effects of these plant extracts against stomach infection associated with pathogenic strains of H. pylori. The crude extracts may be purified for the isolation of compounds with antiurease activity. These results also validate the traditional use of these herbs for the treatment of stomach infection.