ANTIOXIDANT AND IN VITRO β-HEMATIN INHIBITION POTENTIALS OF THE n- HEXANE FRACTION AND ITS ISOLATED COMPOUND FROM THE AERIAL PARTS OF VERNONIA CINEREA LESS. (ASTERACEAE)

Abstract

Vernonia cinerea, a plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. The plant is traditionally used in ethno-medicine for
the treatment of various diseases, including malaria. Antioxidant use in malaria infection confers protection to the
erythrocytes membrane of the host and prevents parasite damage to intact red blood cells. Heme accumulates when
the plasmodium utilizes hemoglobin of the host and, an antimalarial agent with the ability to inhibit the conversion
of heme to hemozoin is regarded as an invaluable target to fight the infection with β-hematin inhibition as an
excellent tool for the evaluation of herbal extract. This study intends to isolate and assess the antioxidant and β-
hematin inhibition activities of the n-hexane fraction (HF) and its isolated compound from the methanol extract of
the plant's aerial parts using standard protocols. Column chromatography was used to purify the HF and, then
analyzed using Fournier transform infra-red (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies for
structural determination. This led to the isolation of a compound coded as VC3, and NMR spectroscopy of the
isolated compound showed it to be a mixture of triterpenoid. Result of radical scavenging activity showed ascorbic
acid to be more than twice the effect in comparison to HF and VC3. However, the result of β-hematin inhibition of
the isolated compound was higher than the positive standard as well as HF. The isolated compound showed slight
antioxidant and appreciable β-hematin inhibition effects.