Pharmacological and toxicological activities of the extracts of papaya leaves used traditionally for the treatment of diarrhea

The purpose of this study is to prepare various extracts with different polarity of solvent from the leaves which was collected from Malaysia and determine their antioxidant and cytotoxic activities by usual bioassays. The extract underwent successive fractionation and evaporation process by using different polarity of solvents to form corresponding hexane, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, butanol extracts. All polarity extracts including water and methanol extracts were used for the determination of antioxidant and cytotoxic activities by using DPPH and BSL bioassays. The results of antioxidant activity showed that all the extracts from papaya leaves did not give much significant activity. However, among the extracts, the highest antioxidant activity was obtained in hexane extract and the lowest was in methanol extract. The range of IC50 values among the leaves extracts was 156.39-782.06 mu g/ml and the height IC50 values was found in the hexane extract followed by hexane > dichloromethane > methanol > ethyl acetate > butanol > water extract. The cytotoxic results of all papaya leaves extracts showed significant activity against BSL bioassay. The highest cytotoxicity among them was in dichloromethane and the lowest was in water extract. In addition, the LC50 value among the different polarities leaves extracts, methanol extract showed significant cytotoxic activity having LC50 value of 118.73 mu g/ml comparable to the other papaya extracts followed by dichloromethane > butanol > hexane > ethyl acetate > water extract. In conclusion, the results obtained from the present experiment, clearly showed that the nonpolar extracts are the best extract and it could be used as traditional medicine, food supplements as well as chemotherapy drugs. (C) 2019 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.