The Potential of Bitter Leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) in Herbal Medicine as Anti-Inflammatory Agent

Abstract

The inflammatory process involves increased vascular permeability, protein denaturation, and membrane alteration. Flavonoids are a class of secondary metabolites with biological and pharmacological activities, including anti-inflammatory. The bitter leaf, Vernonia amygdalina (VA), are used in various alternative medicine in several countries, including Indonesia. Chemical components in VA leaf are polyphenolic compounds, flavonoids, terpenes, and coumarins. The previous study exhibited that the anti-inflammatory activities of plants are closely related to the levels of polyphenols and flavonoids. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of VA leaf and determine the total flavonoid-phenolic content of VA leaf ethanolic extract. The extraction method used maceration by ethanol as a solvent. The anti-inflammatory activity was measured by protein denaturation inhibition properties. The total flavonoid and phenolic content were determined by colorimetric and Folin-Ciocalteu methods, in which both procedures were measured by UV-Visible spectrophotometry at maximum wavelength. The results showed that VA leaf ethanolic extract has an anti-inflammatory effect with a half inhibition concentration (IC50) of 346.23 μg/mL. The total flavonoid and phenolic content of the ethanolic extract of VA leaves were 25.62 mgQE/g extracts and 21.47 mgGAE/g extract, respectively. Thus, the ethanolic extract of VA leaves can potentially be developed as an anti-inflammatory agent in herbal medicine.

Keywords

• anti-inflammatory
• flavonoid
• gallic acid
• phenolic
• quercetin