Phytochemical and pharmacological activities of Pogostemon strigosus Benth

Abstract

In the context of drug discovery and development, there is an increasing demand for the utilization of plants and their derived compounds in modern medicinal chemistry. This study aims at the investigation of phytochemical constituents and pharmacological properties of Pogostemon strigosus Benth. of the family Lamiaceae. The ethanol extract of the whole plant was fractionated, and then followed by preliminary phytochemical investigation and the evaluations of several pharmacological activities which include anti-atherothrombosis, anti-diarrheal, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anxiolytic, antipyretic, neuropharmacological activities using models which includes application of human erythrocytes blood clot test), castor oil-induced diarrheal test, egg albumin test, acetic acid-induced writhing model, swing test, open field, light-dark test, and brewer’s yeast induced fever test, respectively. Phytochemical investigation suggests that the ethanol extract of P. strigosus contains alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, oleoresin, glycosides, reducing sugar, steroids, tannins, and terpenoids. The pharmacological evaluation suggests that P. strigosus has significant anti-atherothrombosis, anti-diarrheal, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anxiolytic, antipyretic, neuropharmacological effects. The chloroform and n-hexane fractions also showed better anti-inflammatory capacities in the egg albumin (77.51 ± 0.06 and 125.7 ± 0.07 µg/mL, respectively) and human erythrocytes (HRBC) (50.60 ± 0.07 and 30.01 ±0.10 µg/mL, respectively). The ethanol extract of P. strigosus showed the above-mentioned pharmacological activities in mice models. P. strigosus may be one of the potential sources of phytotherapeutic lead compounds. Further studies are necessary to characterize the phytochemicals responsible for the observed bioactivities. This report adds credence to the traditional claims about the application of the plant in folkloric medicine.