Chemical Analysis of Anti-Venom Herbal Paste Use in Sri Lanka

Background: Sri Lanka is one of the Asian countries mainly rely on herbal medicines for snake bites. A herbal paste consist of nine medicinal plants have been using for snake bites and clinically proven its efficacy. In the present study, an attempt was done to carry out chemical analysis of the paste.

Methods: Chemical analysis were carried out for the herbal paste in terms of (a) phytochemical screening (b) development of Thin Layer Chromatography fingerprint (c) antioxidant activities.

Results: Phenols, tannins, steroids, saponins and cardiac glycosides were present whereas both flavonoids and alkaloids were absent in the paste. In addition, 14 spots were observed under 254 nm and 366 nm whereas 17 spots were observed after spraying vanillin sulphate in the Thin Layer Chromatography fingerprint. Total polyphenols in the herbal paste was 94.15 ± 5.32 mg gallic acid equivalents/g of extract. Moreover, IC50 value was 628.4 ± 6.5 µg/ml for DPPH assay whereas IC50 value was 180.9 ± 2.3 µg/ml for ABTS assay.

Conclusion: Herbal paste was rich in chemical constituents and showed potent in vitro antioxidant activity.