PHYTOCHEMICAL PROFILING, ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF LEAF EXTRACTS OF ZIZIPHUS NUMMULARIA (BURM.F.) WIGHT & ARN.: PHYTOCONSTITUENTS, PHARMACOLOGICAL EVIDENCE AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Ziziphus nummularia (Burm.f.) Wight & Arn. (family Rhamnaceae) is a medicinal shrub widely spread in dry and semi dry regions of south Asia and used for different pharmacological action such as gastrointestinal disorders, fever, pain, inflammation, skin disorder and infections. This species of the plant has significant phytochemical importance because of its characterstic cyclopeptide alkaloids together with different metaboloites such as flavanoids, phenolic compounds, tannins, saponins, glycosides, triterpenoids and other secondry metabolites. Pharmacological activity confirmed different action such as antioxidants, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidiabetic and anticancer activities, although there magnitude effects varies with plant part, geographical origin, extraction solvent, fractionation procedure and experimental model. Leaf extract are contain diverse phenolic and flavonoid constituents and cyclopeptide alkaloids have demonstrated antioxidant and pharmacological activities. Recent HPLC-PDA-MS/MS-based an ethanolic leaf extract showed phytochemical variety and identified fractions with antioxidant and antiproliferative activity against triple negative breast cancer cells. More recent studies also reported anti-inflammatory effects of leaf extracts through modulation of COX-2, iNOS, nitric oxide, ROS, TNF-α, IL-6 and NF-κB/MAPK-related pathways. However, antimicrobial confirmation remains moderately highlighting the need of standardization methods using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration/minimum fungicidal concentration (MBC/MFC), appropriate controls and well prepared extracts. This review summarizes the botanical, ethnomedicinal, phytochemical and pharmacological evidence for Z. nummularia, with particular emphasis on leaves.