PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Achyranthes aspera is a known folkloric medicinal plant which is used for the treatment of multiple diseases like asthma, fever and piles by the local community. The current study was designed to evaluate the biochemical profile using various qualitative and quantitative analysis of the extracts of A. aspera and to evaluate its bioactive potentials using different enzymatic, antioxidant and antimicrobial tests. HPLC was performed for the quantitative analysis of the plant. DPPH and Disc diffusion assays were used for antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, respectively. Highest concentration of phenols (75.66 mg/g of GAE) was observed in the water extract while chloroform extract showed minimum phenolic contents 15.66 mg/g of GAE which was validated by the HPLC analysis. DPPH assay showed that the highest antioxidant activity was found in water and methanol extract at the concentration of 200 µg/Ml with the percentage scavenging activity, respectively. The crude extract of plant prepared in different solvents showed that methanol and water extract have good antibacterial activity along with MIC values against different bacterial and fungal pathogens that depicted significant (p<0.05) growth inhibition. Highest enzymatic activity was found for superoxide dismutase (78.8±0.03 U/ml) followed by peroxidase (50±0.19 U/ml) and amylase (12±0.04 U/ml).GC-MS analysis of A. aspera extract unveiled that bioactive compounds like 2-piperidinone, epiglobulol, Viridiflorol and surfynol. Hence, this study indicates that A. aspera could be a potential candidate for pharmaceutical industry.