Pharma Research Library | Pharma Info Index Research | Innovation | Opportunities |
Amit Gupta*, Pallavi R Khamkar and Sushama R Chaphalkar
Department of Immunology, Vidya Pratishthan’s, School of Biotechnology (VSBT), Baramati, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
Received: 15 June 2014, Accepted: 28 July 2014, Published Online: 10 August 2014
Abstract
In the last three decades, aqueous extract have been isolated from the leaf, stem and root from medicinal plants and used as a source of therapeutic agents. The most promising immunopharmacological activities of these aqueous extract are their immunomodulatory as well as anti-inflammatory effects. The aqueous extract isolated from the leaf, stem and root of Ficus religiosa and evaluated the effect on human whole blood to observe the monocytes, lymphocytes and granulocytes count using flow cytometry, hemolytic activity, cytotoxicity assay and also observed the Th1 (TNF alpha) type of cytokine from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The results showed that the effect of variable doses of aqueous extract of root of Ficus religiosa at lower concentration showed immunomodulatory effect i.e. increase in the level of monocytes at a dose range in case of root (0.5 mg/ml) and also increased the pro-inflammatory cytokine i.e. TNF alpha in peripheral blood mononuclear cells but in case of leaf and stem showed rapidly decline in the level of monocytes and TNF apha at higher doses (30 mg/ml) as compared to control and these results showed anti-inflammatory activity. The presented data indicate that root of Ficus religiosa at lower concentration has broad immunomodulatory effects and in leaf and stem showed anti-inflammatory effect at higher doses in human whole blood and PBMC. Furthermore, at higher doses i.e. 30 mg/ml exhibited significant hemolytic activity as compared to control.
Keywords: Ficus religiosa, monocytes, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory
