Abstracto

Immunostimulatory Activity of Flavonoids Isolated From Stem Bark of Zizyphus Mauritiana

Suhas Talmale , Arti Bhujade , Mandakini Patil

Immune system is the maintaining authority of the living system. Both innate and acquired immunity are extremely important for the maintenance of good health. A small defect in innate as well as acquired immunity can lead to serious problems and thus modulation of immune response to prevent infections is very important part of medical science. Numbers of synthetic immunostimulants are daily consumed by patients, but along with them unnecessarily side effects are also purchased. This is the reason why for most of the people Ayurveda is still the first choice. Zizyphus mauritiana, a plant rich with phytochemicals, was selected in the present investigation for evaluating its immunostimulatory activities. Extracts of the stem bark were prepared in various solvents. Chloroform extract was found to contain significant amount of flavonoids. Hence, it was selected to study immunostimulation. Adsorption column chromatography of chloroform extract was performed and most active fraction termed as Purified Fraction (PF) was isolated. The PF was seen to stimulate phagocytic index, lysosomal degranulation and lymphocyte as well as splenocyte proliferation.