ETHNOMEDICINAL IMPORTANCE OF HYGROPHILA SPINOSA T.

ANDERS : A REVIEW

Amit Kumar Dash1*, G. K. Dutta1, K. K. Sardar2 and G. Sahoo2

1Department of Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry,College of Veterinary Science and A. H., I.G.K.V., Anjora, Durg - 491 001 (Chattishgarh), India.

2College of Veterinary Science and A.H., O.U.A.T., Bhubaneswar - 751 003 (Odisha), India.

Abstract

Hygrophila spinosa contains several phytoconstituents viz. phytosterols, polyphenols, proanthocyanins, mucilage, alkaloids,flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, etc. having haematinic, antidiabetic, anti-nociceptive, hepato-protective, antioxidativeand androgenic property with no side effects. In the present text, literatures about ethnomedicinal importance such ashematinic, hepato-protective, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antinociceptive, anticancerous and androgenic properties of H. spinosa

are discussed. It was concluded that the residual fraction of hot water extract of H. spinosa have better haematinic propertyon induced haemolytic anemia than that of its aqueous and methnolic counterparts. It was also established that the methanolicfraction has higher potential in inhibiting lipid peroxidation and methanolic and aqueous fractions in increasing reducedglutathione concentration in blood in case of induced haemolytic anemia on 30th day of experiment.

Key words : H. spinosa, herbal medicine, haematinic, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antinociceptive and androgenic.

Plant Archives Vol. 12 No. 1, 2012 pp. 5-9 ISSN 0972-5210

Introduction

Man since time immemorial has been using herbs orplant products as medicine for combating ailments viz.

cold, coryza, joint pains, fever, etc. and building upimmunity or resistance. The use of herbal products inamelioration of such common diseases are credited tothe traditional systems of medicines like Ayurveda, Siddhaand Unani. A vast majority of rural population dependslargely on herbal remedies. A good number of herbalremedies have stood the test of time particularly for thetreatment of allergic, metabolic and degenerative diseasesassociated with aging. However, no scientific dataregarding identity and effectiveness of these herbs areavailable except that in the treatise of Ayurveda and Unanimedicine. In view of the above, pioneering research onindigenous medicinal plants was initiated by Sir Ram NathChopra, which is well documented in his comprehensivetreatise (Chopra et al., 1958). During the past manydecades, traditional knowledge system of medicine hasbecome a topic of global concern. Man has been usingplant and plant products in different ways according tohis needs, particularly as food, fuel and medicine. Amongthe entire flora, 35,000-70,000 species are used for

medicinal purposes. India is one of the richest floristicregions of the world and has been a source of plants andtheir products since ancient times. China and India aretwo major producers of medicinal plants having morethan 40% of global biodiversity (Vijeesh and Velumani,2011).

Although several bottlenecks lies in the medicinal plantresearch, the prospects of development of indigenousdrugs for human and animal health care system shouldbe very bright and brilliant so that the development ofsome drugs of promising therapeutic efficacy can find asuitable place for therapeutic applications. The concertedefforts of team of phytochemists, pharmacologists andbiotechnologists working together in well organisedlaboratories can make dream possible in multidimensionalchemical, pharmacological and biotechnological screeningof the active fraction of the plants followed by the testsfor studying the different effects viz. analgesic, antipyretic,anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, adaptogenic, antifertility,antidiabetogenic, hypolopidemic, hepatoprotective, etc.along with involvement in enzymatic, endocrinological,immunomodulatory functions. These studies can help towiden their profile of activity and open new vistas oftherapeutic applications. The rural folks have strong belief

*Author for correspondence : E-mail: akdash123@gmail.com

Review Article

on one such plant namely H. spinosa T. Anders havinghaematinic, antidiabetic, anti-nociceptive, hepato-protective, antioxidative and androgenic property.

H. spinosa is an annual, robust and erect herbbelonging to the family Acanthaceae with sub-quadrangular thickened nodes, oblanceolate leaves withyellow spines in axils, flowers pale to purple blue, denselyclustered in axils, fruits oblong, glabrous capsules 4 to 8seeded and finds its mention in Ayurvedic treatise like‘Sushruta Samhita’ and ‘Charak Samhita’ as Rasayanor rejuvenator (Kirtikar & Basu, 2005 and Nadkarni,2007). H. spinosa, portrayed in Ayurvedic literature asIkshugandha, is commonly found in moist places on thebanks of paddy fields, tanks, ditches, etc. and widelydistributed throughout India from Himalayas to Ceylon,Srilanka, Burma, Malaysia and Nepal with synonyms asH. auriculata (Schumach), Heine; Asteracantha

longifolia (L.) Nees. H. spinosa is a commonly foundherb in India being used as vegetable in some states likeOdisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and is employedfor the treatment of cancer, arthritis, hepatotoxicity,inflammation, blood diseases, diabetes, fever, constipation,bacterial infection, etc. H. spinosa contains variousgroups of phyto-constituents viz. phytosterols,polyphenols, proanthocyanins, mucilage, alkaloids,flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, etc and is useful in thetreatment of anasaraca, diseases of urinogenital tract,dropsy of chronic Bright’s disease, hyperdipsia, vesicalcalculi, flatulence, diarrhea, dysentery, leucorrhoea,gonorrhoea, asthma, blood diseases, gastric diseases,painful micturition, menorrhagea, etc. (Rastogi &Mehrotra, 1993; Annonymous, 2002 and Sharma et al.,2002).

Presently more than half of the global populationexperiences some forms of anaemia in their life time thataffects people of all ages, although the elderly, youngpregnant women are at greater risk leading to variousdiseases (Duff, 2008). People below poverty line in thedeveloping countries just cannot afford for the treatmentof anaemia and other dreadful diseases because ofinvolvement of high cost of available allopathicmedications. Moreover, the rural population in variousparts of the globe do not have adequate access to highquality drugs for this problem thus compelling them todepend heavily on plants and herbal products. Since,anaemia is very common and the incidence is likely toincrease in future, there is need to prevent it or seek formore cost-effective and better treatment strategies (Duff,2008). Anaemia is claimed to have been treatedsuccessfully with herbal materials by traditional medicinepractitioners. For instance, in China, anaemia,

6 Amit Kumar Dash et al.

arteriovenous malformations, varicose veins andhaemorrhages, etc. have been treated with plant materials(Richard, 1978). Growth factor like cytokines stimulateshaemopoietic system and H. spinosa extract is reportedto show haemopoietic stimulation in rodents (Singer et

al., 1993). Ethanolic extract of the aerial parts of H.

spinosa significantly increased haemoglobin, haemocrit,RBC and total WBC count in anaemic male rats(Dasgupta et al., 2001). The ethanolic extract ofAsteracantha longifolia (Nees.) effectively restored thehematological parameters, serum iron and serum protein(Pawar et al., 2010). The extract of this plant alsonormalized the microcytic (smaller in size), anisocytosis(disturbed shape) and hypochromic RBCs and justifiedthe inclusion of this plant in the management of irondeficiency anemia due the presence of iron and otherconstituents such as flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids,lupeol and betulin. Pre flowering hot water extract of H.

spinosa leaf and aerial part showed better haematiniceffect than the post flowering extract (Mandal, 2008 andThakur, 2008). The residual fraction of hot water extractof H. spinosa have better haematinic property on inducedhaemolytic anemia than that of its aqueous and methnoliccounterparts (Dash, 2011). Long term use of hot waterextract of H. spinosa alone, in combination withconventional haematinics and conventional haematinicalone showed that H. spinosa hot water extract alonehave better effect with no additive effect withconventional hematinics (Mandal, 2008).

Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrinedisorder currently affecting 285 million people worldwideand this number is set to increase even upto 438 millionby the year 2030 (Sicree et al., 2009). Plant materialsbeing used as traditional medicine for the treatment ofdiabetes are considered to be good sources for a newdrug candidate or a lead to make a new drug. In thirdworld countries, plant extract or different folk plantpreparations are being prescribed by the traditionalpractitioners for control of diabetes. Now-a-days, morethan 400 plants are being used for producinghypoglycaemic effects which requires proper scientificevaluation, pharmacological screening, chemicalinvestigation followed by validation and documentation.

Free radicals are responsible by lipid per oxidationoccurred during production and storage of nutrients (Singhet al., 2002) and are directly involved in cancers,cardiovascular disorders, diabetes (Yildrin et al., 2001),Alzheimer’s disease (Allison et al., 2001). In animalorganism, different biochemical pathways of the normalmetabolism involve free radicals formation, but in thesecases defense mechanism processes against the oxidative

process propagation are also involved without evincing agood and constant mechanism (Yildrin et al., 2001).Exogenous antioxidant compounds are responsible forstrengthening defense mechanism of the body.Antioxidants block the free radicals formation by differentways and establish important control function in someoxidative stress diseases (Harbone, 1994 and Allison et

al., 2001) and in food conservation (Skerget et al., 2005).The natural antioxidants isolated from medicinal plantsacquire great biochemical and pharmacologicalimportance in the last few decades (Capecka et al., 2005;Harish and Shivanandappa, 2006). The treatment ofdiabetic rats with the hydro-alcoholic extract of the aerialparts of H. auriculata (100 and 300 mg/kg body weight)for three weeks demonstrated reduction in blood glucose,thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) andhydroperoxide in both liver and kidney. The extractincreased the glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase(GP

X), glutathione s-transferase (GST) and catalase in

the treated groups. Treatment with the extract alsoreduced lipid peroxidation that is associated with increasedactivity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase.Hence, the extract possesses antidiabetic and antioxidantactivities (Vijayakumar et al., 2006). Sultana et al. (2006)reported that methanolic extract of the H. spinosa is aneffective inhibitor of oxidative stress and oxidant inducedpost necrotic proliferation in rat liver. Sawadogo et al.(2006) investigated that the methanolic extract of leavescontains phenolic and flavonoid which has promisingantioxidant activity. However, aqueous extract of leavesof Asteracantha longifolia shows potent antioxidantactivity in various in vitro models (Dasgupta and De,2007). The free radical-scavenging effect of H.

auriculata is due to the different phytochemicals presentin its various extracts and fractions; the total phenoliccontent and the terpenoids present in the ethyl acetateand n-butaonl fractions are responsible for high and overallfree radical scavenging effect seen in vitro (Hussain et

al., 2009). The active constituent poly-phenolics andterpenoids present in the ethyl acetate and n-butanolfractions may be responsible for the in vitro free radicalscavenging activity of H. auriculata (K. Schum) Heine.The work done in our laboratory demonstrated that thetotal antioxidant (317.5±11.42, µmole of ascorbic acidequivalent/mg of extract) and total phenolics(0.1424±0.016, mg of gallic acid equivalent/mg of extract)in hot water extract of leaf and aerial parts and amongstaqueous, methanolic and residual fraction of hot waterextract of leaf and aerial parts, methanolic fractioncontained the high concentration of total antioxidant andaqueous fraction contained the highest concentration of

phenolic compounds (Dash, 2011). It was also establishedthat the methanolic fraction has higher potential ininhibiting lipid peroxidation and methanolic and aqueousfractions in increasing reduced glutathione concentrationin blood in case of induced haemolytic anemia on 30thday of experiment (Dash, 2011).

The management of pain is a great challenge inmodern medicine, despite the currently available widerange of analgesics. Medicinal plants are believed to bean important source of new chemical substances withpotential therapeutic effects in relieving pain (Farnsworth,1889 and Gupta et al., 2006). The aqueous extract ofaerial parts and root for its anti-nociceptive property usingboth chemical and thermal methods of nociception in mice(Shanmugasundaram and Venkataraman, 2005).Chloroform and alcoholic extracts of H. spinosa T.Anders leaves have anti-inflammatory, analgesic andantipyretic activities (Patra et al., 2009a and 2009b).Medicinal plants represent a rich source of antimicrobialagent and are used medicinally as a source of many potentand powerful drugs (Srivastava et al., 1996). A widerange of medicinal plant extracts as raw drugs possessvaried medicinal properties and include root, stem, flower,fruit, twigs exudates and modified plant organs. Whilesome of these raw drugs are collected in smaller quantitiesby the local communities and folk healers for local use,many other raw drugs are collected in larger quantitiesand traded in the market as the raw material for manyherbal industries (Uniyal et al., 2006). Methanol extractsof H. spinosa showed antimicrobial activity speciallyagainst Burkholderia pseudomallei strain (Samy, 2005).Petroleum ether, chloroform, alcoholic and aqueousextracts of leaves of H. spinosa produced significantanthelmintic activity while both alcoholic and chloroformextracts showed significant antibacterial activity ascompared to other extracts (Patra et al., 2009b).

Methanol extract of H. spinosa seed showedinhibition of hepatocarcinogenesis in Wistar rats withincrease in GPx, CAT and ODC (Ahmed et al., 2001).Petroleum ether extract from H. spinosa root exhibitedantitumor activity in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma andSarcoma-180 bearing mice and extract suppressedsignificantly the tumor fluid volume at the end of threeweeks experiment with decrease of about 50% of packedcell volume and increased life span of EAC/S-180 bearingmice in a day dependent manner (Mazumdar et al., 1997).The hydroalcoholic extract of aerial part of H.

spinosa could prevent or delay the development of breastcancer in the rats (Pattanayak and Sunita, 2008).

Aphrodisiac plants are plants with anabolic propertiesi.e. they help in protein synthesis and enhance sexual

Ethnomedicinal Importance of H. spinosa T. Anders : A Review 7

abilities in males. They are also known as androgenicplants because their properties are similar to that ofandrogen. Speman, a polyherbal formulation containing A.

longifolia, is responsible for improving number andmorphology of sperms (Agrawal and Kulkarni, 2003).The ethanolic extract of seeds confirmed androgenic aswell as improvement of sexual behaviour of rat in dosedependent manner and also improved the histoarchitectureof testis and increase in the concentration of sperm countin epididymis as well as increase in testosterone level(Chauhan et al., 2009).

Conclusion

From the above cited literature, it can be concludedthat H. spinosa encompasses various phytoconstituentsviz., phytosterols, polyphenols, proanthocyanins, mucilage,alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, etc. whichare responsible for various medicinal properties H.

spinosa, although investigated by many workers for itsmedicinal properties, still insists further cellular researchfor studying the mechanism of different bioactiveprinciples that are responsible for its medicinal properties.Moreover, purification, identification of active principlesand standardization of dosage forms of H. spinosa willhave immense therapeutic implications in human andanimal health care system. Since, the herbal medicinesboth in developed and developing countries areeconomical, easily available, less or no side effect, theinterest towards plants having medicinal values isincreasing substantially day by day. Hence, the presentfinding of H. spinosa will positively prompt the scientistsand researchers to screen out the bioactive compoundsfor future pharmaceutical formulations.

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