Antioxidant Potential of Cordia dichotoma: A Review

Ram Chand Dhakar¹*, Sunil Kumar Prajapati¹*, Sheo Datta Maurya³, Vijay Kumar Tilak⁴, Manas Kumar Das⁵, Soumya Das⁶, Krishan Kumar Verma⁷*, Nilesh Jain ⁸

¹ Hospital Pharmacy, SRG Hospital & Medical College Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India-326001

² Professor, Institute of Pharmacy, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, India

³ Principal, Sarvodaya College of Pharmacy, Azamgarh, India 

⁴ Apex Professional University, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh-791102, India 

⁵ Director, Orlean Collge of Pharmacy, 42-Knowledge Park-3, Greater Noida, U.P., India-201308

⁶ Associate Professor, NIET (Pharmacy Institute), 19-Knowledge Park-2, Greater Noida, U.P., India-201308

⁷ Professor, Lloyd School of Pharmacy, Plot No 3, Knowledge Park-1, Greater Noida, U.P., India-201308

⁸ Sagar Institute of Research Technology & Science-Pharmacy, Bhopal, India. 

Introduction 

Management of diseases with agents devoid of any side effects is still a big challenge to the researchers. There is increasing interest in natural medicine due to these reasons. Plant species of the genus Cordia are utilized for the treatment of various illnesses that affect many human systems. C. dichotoma is a tree of tropical and subtropical regions, commonly known as Lasura in Hindi and Shleshmataka in Sanskrit. 

Various phytoconstituents like flavonoids, triterpenes, tannins, alkaloids and fatty acids possessing different bioactivities were isolated from different plant parts of C. dichotoma. Many researchers reported various pharmacological applications of C. dichotoma such as Anti-ulcer¹, Contraceptives², anti-inflammatory^{3, 4, 5, 6} anthelmintic, analgesic, anticancer^{4,7, 8}, Antioxdant^8,9, antimicrobial¹⁰, antifungal¹⁰, hepatoprotective¹¹ and diuretic purposes and for treating digestive system, respiratory, urogenital, cardiac, vascular and blood disorders. C. dichotoma is a promising source of natural antioxidants which possess remarkable therapeutic action as inflammatory activity and may serve as food ingredients^{12, 13, 14, 15}. Thus objectives of the present review are to provide an overview of the uses of C. dichotoma as herbal antioxidant.

Figure 1: Various Parts of Cordia dichotoma plant³

Classification:

Kingdom: Plantae; 

Division: Magnoliophyta; 

Class: Dicotyledons; 

Subclass: Astaridae; 

Order: Lamiales; 

Family: Boraginaceae; 

Genus: Cordia; 

Species: C. dichotoma Forst.

Distribution:

C. dichotoma is a tree that found in tropical and subtropical regions. It grows in the sub-Himalayan tract and outer ranges, ascending up to about 1500 m elevation. It is found in different types of forests ranging from the moist deciduous forests of the Western Ghats and tidal forests in Mayanmar to the dry deciduous forest of Rajasthan. In Maharashtra, it grows in the moist monsoon forest also⁴. 

Botanical description:

C. dichotoma family Boraginaceae is a small to moderate size deciduous tree with a short bole, short crooked trunk and spreading crown. The stem bark is grayish brown in color, longitudinally wrinkled or smooth. Leaves are simple, entire and slightly dentate, elliptical-lanceolate to broad ovate with the round and cordate base. These flowers are 25mm long, dull pinkish edible fruits with sticky flesh flowers are short-stalked, bisexual and white in color, appear in loose corymbose cymes.¹² The fruit is a yellow or greenish-yellow shining globose or ovoid drupe seated in a saucer-like enlarged calyx (fig. 1). It turns black on ripening and the pulp gets viscid. The hard stone is 1-4 seeded. 

C. dichotoma as Herbal Antioxidant:

Free radicals are responsible for many diseases like arthritis, cancer, diabetes mellitus, aging, etc. Herbal antioxidants have gained great importance in recent years as they are utilizing in the management of such diseases due to their ability to neutralize free radicals. As plants are the source of natural antioxidants, much attention has been gain to plants. Currently, there has been an increased interest globally to identify anti-oxidant compound that has potent bioactivities and has low or no side effects. ¹⁷

Oxidative stress is defined as an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the organism to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants. As free radicals are very reactive species, their overproduction during oxidative stress can cause damage to all biological macromolecules, such as DNA, proteins and lipids, thus leading to cell damage and subsequently, to the manifestation of pathological conditions as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and inflammatory diseases ¹⁸. Antioxidants are secondary molecules or metabolites that act as ROS scavenger and activator of cellular antioxidative enzymes to prevent the damages induced by ROS in biological system. Hence, naturally occurring antioxidants from plant polyphenols are getting more attention in terms of practical usage as safe and potent bioactive compounds¹⁹.

Antioxidant activity of this plant may be attributed to presence of phenols, flavones, isoflavones, flavonoids, xanthones, alkaloids, anthraquinones, phytosterols, steroids, amino acids, anthocyanins, isothiocyanate indoles, coumarins lignans, catechins, and isocatechins etc^{20, 21, 22}.

Many in vitro and in vivo studies on antioxidant activity of C. dichotoma are available in literature^{5,6,9,12,20,23,24}.  Quercetin from C. dichotoma is a phytochemical with high antioxidant activity that has been shown to maintain blood pressure levels and thus improve cardiovascular function. Quercetin can inhibit platelet aggregation, increase nitric oxide activity and improve endothelial function.^{20, 23}

Sharma et al studied the role of free radical scavenging activity of C. dichotoma seeds and leaves extract in degenerative disorders¹⁶. Author state that these models demonstrate positive antioxidant activity in a concentration dependant manner and demonstrate that highest concentration exhibits highest (100 μg/ml) antioxidant activity. Result concluded that antioxidant activity was more pronounced in leaves as compared to seeds. 

Singh et al. were carried out a comparative study of methanolic extract of seeds and leaves of C. dichotoma for free radical scavenging potential in the management of degenerative disorders. Antioxidant activity was more pronounce in methanolic extract of leaves as compared to seeds⁶.

Nariya et al evaluated the phenolic contents and antioxidant potential of methanolic and butanol extract of C. dichotoma bark. In the present study three in vitro models were used to evaluate antioxidant activity. The first two methods employed direct measurement of radical scavenging activity and in remaining one method evaluated the reducing power. C. dichotoma showed strong antioxidant activity by inhibiting DPPH activity and reducing power activities when compared with standard l–ascorbic acid. In addition, both the extracts were found to contain a noticeable amount of total phenols, which play a key role in controlling oxidation. The results present study show that the extract can be used as an easily available source of herbal antioxidant. The chemicals present in the bark such as alkaloids, terpenoids, reducing sugars, flavonoids, proteins, steroids, and tannins may be responsible for such activity⁹. 

Shuge et al carried out a study aiming to determine the phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of air-dried C. dichotoma seeds. The results from this study indicate that C. dichotoma seeds are a rich source of polyphenolic compounds and amino acids, which can be used for quality assessment. Results revealed that ethanolic extract of C. dichotoma seeds has good antioxidant capacity²³. Mahasweta et al examinated the antioxidant potential of C. dichotoma seeds. Hentricontanol Fraction (HTF), Hesperetin fraction (HF) and Taxifolin fraction (TF) from the seeds of C. dichotoma showed promising DPPH free radical scavenging activity at a concentration of 100 μg/mL⁵.

Table 1: Reported work on Antioxidant Potential of Cordia dichotoma

Conclusion and Future Prospective

Over the past three decades, much scientific information has been accumulated regarding phytochemicals and pharmacology of C. dichotoma. However, this information has not been collectively discussed together, which is very important in understanding the therapeutic utility of this plant.

Various compounds like flavonoids, triterpenes, tannins, alkaloids and fatty acids possessing different bioactivities were isolated from different parts of this plant. The various pharmacological studies carried out with extracts of different parts indicates that the C. dichotoma possess analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, wound healing, antidiabetic and antifertility activities.  Antioxidant activity was mainly attributed to the presence of flavonoids and phenolic compounds, which was confirmed by the IC50 data correlation in various reported work. Due to the very long tradition using C. dichotoma for management of various diseases and also because of what is known today about its chemical constituents and biological activities, it seems to be worth the effort of exploring this plant further and such information may be used for further research work related to C. dichotoma and other traditional systems of medicine.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil

Conflict of Interest 

There are no conflicts of interest

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