RESEARCH ARTICLE
Justification of Traditional Uses of (Shatavari) - A Miracle Herb

The ethanolic plant extracts of Asparagus racemosus and their partitionates were assessed for thrombolytic, membrane stabilizing, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity in vitro.

The collected plant was dried and grinded. The coarse powder was shocked in 2000 mL of 90% methanol for several days then filtrated. At 40°C the volume of crude ethanolic extract (CEE) was reduced by a vacuum rotary evaporator followed by concentrated aqueous ethanol extractive was fractionated into petroleum ether (PSF), carbon tetrachloride (CTSF), chloroform soluble fraction (CSF) and aqueous (AQSF) soluble fractions.

In thrombolytic assay among all the extractives, carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction (CTSF) showed the highest clot lysis (41.48 ± 0.43%) activity as compared with standard streptokinase (65.16 ± 0.16%). With respect to the membrane stabilizing activity, chloroform soluble fraction (CSF) profoundly inhibited the lysis of erythrocytes (80.86 ± 0.36%) induced by osmosis, whereas reference standard acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) resulted in (88.99 ± 0.39%) inhibition of lysis. On the other hand, CTSF showed slightly higher level of protection against heat-induced hemolysis (85.68 ± 0.75%) as same as with ASA, (85.68 ± 0.75%)). In antimicrobial investigation, crude ethanol extract (CEE) and their partitioning fractions exhibited moderate inhibition of growth of some examined bacteria. The total phenolic content was found maximum (930.94 mg of GAE/gm) in CEE of A. racemosus. The antioxidant potentials in term of DPPH free radical scavenging assay showed EC50 values 2.62 μg/mL by aqueous soluble fraction (AQSF) in comparison to ascorbic acid 2.48 μg/mL as a reference standard.

This study was conducted to validate the A. racemosus plant as thrombolytic, membrane stabilizing agent, antimicrobial and antioxidant.