IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-BACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY HERBAL MIXTURE OF C. JAGUS L. (AMARYLLIDACEAE) E. HIRTA LINN (EUPHORBIACEAE) AND T.TETRAPTERA TAUB (MIMOSACEAE).

Famobuwa Olaniyi*, Oloyede Hammed, Amuho Uzezi and Adekunbi Adedayo

ABSTRACT

The potential of most herbal preparations to prevent and cure diseases and disease conditions may be largely attributed to the anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activity of the herbal plants. The present study was undertaken to evaluate, comparatively, the antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties of the anti-asthmatic herbal mixture and its constituent herbal plants; Crinum jagus (CJ), Euphobia hirta (EH) and Tetrapleura tetraptera (TT). Antioxidant activity was evaluated using the standard methods of 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Property (FRAP). Anti-bacterial activity was evaluated by the Agar well Diffusion method. The antioxidant assay results showed the higher antioxidant capacity of EH and CJ than the mixture and compared favourably with the positive control, ascorbic acid, while TT showed a lower antioxidant capacity than that of the mixture. The anti-bacterial activity results showed that both EH and CJ have higher inhibitory activity than the herbal mixture. We may, therefore, conclude that there is no scientific justification for the continuous use of this herbal mixture as an herbal therapy for the treatment of inflammation related diseases, since both EH and CJ performed better than the herbal mixture as anti-bacterial and antioxidant agents.

Keywords: Crinum jagus, Euphorbia hirta, Tetrapleura tetraptera, Herbal mixture, Antioxidant, Anti-bacterial.