Research Output
Insights into the Quality Control and Safety Assessment of Ficus Detoidea Varieties
Pharmacognostic Evaluation of Zingiber Officinale and Curcuma Longa from Perlis for Therapeutic Discovery
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Publication
An important aspect in herbal studies involved the understanding and evaluation on the quality and safety assessment of the raw materials before proceeding to herbal drug development process. In herbal standardization, the quality and safety assessment of herbal drugs offer an insight on the condition and handling of the raw material during the pre- and post-harvesting process. Thenceforth, a study was conducted to evaluate and construe the quality and safety assessment of four different varieties of Ficus deltoidea which were the Ficus deltoidea var. kunstleri, var. delotidea, var. terengganuensis and var. angustifolia. A series of quality control test and safety assessment were conducted on the leaf of Ficus deltoidea consist of total ash, moisture content, aflatoxins, total microbial content and heavy metal analysis. Overall, the analysis elucidated acceptable quality control results, with no aflatoxins and food pathogens were detected from all the samples, providing an insight on how the raw materials were handled, priorly. To summarized, the findings obtained from these studies showed that all the Ficus deltoidea varieties complied to proper pre- and post-harvesting handling process and are suitable for further herbal drug development study.
Publication
The medicinal properties of a plant are sought after for its potential therapeutic properties. Through its phytochemicals, numerous biological activities have been reported scientifically and were developed as an active pharmaceutical ingredient for biological products. Hence, this study evaluated the locally produced Zingiber officinale and Curcuma longa obtained from Padang Besar, Perlis, for their pharmacognostic properties. Quality control assessments were conducted to determine the cleanliness of the raw materials before proceeding with the pharmacognostic evaluation. The extracts for both plants were prepared through ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) and maceration using methanol, ethanol, and distilled water. The phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and protein for each extract were investigated. The total phenolic compounds revealed that the combination of UAE and methanol had the highest value for both plant samples. On the other hand, the total flavonoid content suggests that UAE in ethanol solvent was the best approach to extract flavonoids for both plants. On the contrary, maceration techniques extracted the highest protein content for both plants. The biological testing for therapeutic evaluation based on the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging assay unraveled the methanol UAE was the potent extract for Z. officinale and C. longa, with half maximal inhibitory concentration, IC50 values of 0.39 and 0.32 mg/mL, respectively. Altogether, the findings obtained from these studies showed that Z. officinale and C. longa from Perlis showed good quality conditions, high content of phytochemicals, and potent antioxidant properties suitable for further herbal drug development studies.