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. 2019 Jan 15;19(1):18.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-019-2432-9.

Development of aqueous-based multi-herbal combination using principal component analysis and its functional significance in HepG2 cells

Pardeep Kaur  1 , Robin  1 , Rajendra G Mehta  2 , Balbir Singh  3 , Saroj Arora  4
Affiliations

Development of aqueous-based multi-herbal combination using principal component analysis and its functional significance in HepG2 cells

Pardeep Kaur et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: The present study was carried out to prepare multi-herbal combination via comparing antioxidant activity and polyphenolic composition of five medicinal plant extracts of Punica granatum L., Putranjiva roxburghii Wall., Swertia chirata Buch.-Ham., Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers and Trigonella corniculata L.

Methods: The herbs were individually evaluated using in vitro antioxidant assays and analyzed by HPLC-PDA. The resultant data was examined using principal component analysis (PCA). Further, herbal combination was prepared on the basis of PCA.

Results: The PCA divided the plants into three groups. The leading or primary group contained P. granatum and P. roxburghii with the highest antioxidant activity strongly correlated with high amount of kaempferol. S. chirata was acknowledged as nourisher herb in one and T. cordifolia and T. corniculata were identified as stimulator herbs in other group. The herbal combination exhibited high antioxidant activity as compared to the individual plants. The combination revealed good antiproliferative efficacy against hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells with IC50 of 75.864 μg/ml.

Conclusions: The activity observed in vitro with HepG2 cells suggests that the herbal combination can provide therapeutic activity in vivo in future. The study may provide information regarding precise preparation of multi-herbal formulations using PCA as a tool in pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: Antioxidant; HPLC; HepG2; Medicinal plants; Multi-herbal combination; Principal component analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The present study did not involve any human and animal subjects. In order to carry out non-invasive procedures (assays employed routinely in the laboratory), blood from healthy donors was collected (not more than 2 ml/donor/week) with due permission from Dr. Sunil Kumar Gupta, In-charge, Health Centre, Guru Nanak Dev University (Ref. No.- 1298/Bot. & Env. Sc.) and written consent was obtained from volunteers to participate.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
In vitro antioxidant activity of five herbs and herbal combination
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reduction of multidimensional variables by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for five medicinal plants
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Radial graph of growth inhibitory activity of herbal combination against different human cell lines
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Phase contrast microscopy (a) HepG2 cells with no treatment (b) HepG2 cells treated with 10 μM camptothecin (c) HepG2 cells treated with IC50 (75.864 μg/ml) of the herbal combination
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Confocal microscopy (a) HepG2 cells with no treatment (b) HepG2 cells treated with 10 μM camptothecin (c) HepG2 cells treated with IC50 (75.864 μg/ml) of the herbal combination
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Reactive oxygen species generation in HepG2 cells after treatment with IC50 value of herbal combination
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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