Study of Bioactive Phytoconstituents and In-Vitro Pharmacological Properties of Thallose Liverworts of Darjeeling Himalaya

Background: Study on bryophytes has long been neglected although many biological activities and many phytochemicals unique to plant kingdom are reported from them. Objective: This work aims to study the in vitro antioxidant along with anti-diabetic activities and phytochemical constituents of three liverworts of Marchantiales group namely Plagiochasma cordatum, Marchantia subintegra and Marchantia emarginata. Furthermore an effort was made to find out the solvent system for extraction of phytochemicals showing better pharmacological activities and also the correlation between pharmacological activities and bioactive components. Materials and methods: For the said purpose DPPH, ABTS, nitric oxide, superoxide, metal chelating, reducing power, α-amylase inhibitory and α-glucosidase inhibitory assay were performed. Quantitative test for phenol, flavonoid, ortho-dihydric phenol, steroid and tannin was done. Qualitative test and thin layer chromatographic analysis was performed for detection of constituent phytochemicals. Pearson correlation analysis, Principle component analysis and Heatmap were done for studying the association between the bioactive components of the studied plants and their pharmacological activities. Results: All the studied plants showed free radical scavenging and anti-diabetic activity but the activity of Plagiochasma sp. was superior to Marchantia spp. Among different extracts, diethyl ether extract showed significant potential to scavenge different free radicals analyzed, thus suitable for extraction of bioactive phytoconstituents for oxidative stress management. Conclusion: Potent pharmacological activities of this less explored group of plants pave the pathway for isolation of bioactive compounds of therapeutic and medicinal value.