In-vitro Anti-Oxidant Property of Vallarai (Centella asiatica) cultivated by conventional and traditional Methods

Abstract

In ancient times, Siddhars have been described and also used the traditional methods to cultivate the anti-oxidant herbs for rejuvenation purpose and also they are listed some plants as anti-oxidant herbs. They were used Semicarpus anacardium manure for cultivation of anti-oxidant plants. In Siddha, these anti-oxidant herbs are mentioned as Kayakarpam (Rejuvenation therapy). Most of the Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) are caused by oxidative stress. These anti-oxidant herbs are helps to reduce oxidative stress and prevent the incidence of NCDs. Centella asiatica (Vallarai) is one of the Kayakarpa medicinal plants. The traditional cultivation method for Kayakarpa herbs are also described in Siddha especially for Centella asiatica (Vallarai). Therefore, this study was aimed to validate the in-vitro anti-oxidant property of Vallarai cultivated by conventional (sample A) and traditional methods (sample B). The study samples were screened for anti-oxidant activity by DPPH assay, Nitric Oxide radical scavenging assay, ABTS assay and H₂O₂ radical scavenging assay and the IC₅₀ value of the study drug,  sample-A was 88.6 ± 8.536 (μg /ml), 183 ± 15.55 (μg/ml), 78.92 ± 8.43 (μg /ml) and 183 ± 11.64 (μg /ml) whereas sample- B was 57.06 ± 1.221 (μg /ml); 145.1 ± 13.12 (μg/ml); 96.45 ± 3.966 (μg /ml) and  132.3 ± 18.71 (μg /ml) respectively. This study results revealed that, both samples are possessing anti-oxidant property and sample B have greater scavenging activity compared to sample A. Hence, The Traditional method can be adopted for cultivation of anti-oxidant herbs, which helps to retain the active components and enhances the anti-oxidant potency of medicinal herbs.