PURIFICATION AND FRACTIONAL ANALYSIS OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF WEDELIA TRILOBATA POSSESSING APOPTOTIC AND ANTI-LEUKEMIC ACTIVITY.

Background: Wedelia trilobata (L.) Hitch (WT), commonly known as yellow dots or creeping daisy, is a shrub possessing potent biological activities, and is traditionally used a medicinal plant in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems of medicines, and it has also been tried against leukemia cell line MEG- 01. In the present study, purification and screening of the plant was done for bioactive compounds in methanolic extract of WT for apoptotic and anti-leukemia activity.

Materials and methods: The methanolic extract of WT was initially purified through thin layer chromatography (TLC) and screened for the apoptotic and anti-leukemia activities. The positive band of TLC was subjected to silica gel column chromatography for further purification and the fractions obtained from it were screened again for anti-leukemia activity through thymidine uptake assay and apoptotic activity by DNA fragmentation, nuclear staining and flow cytometry assays. The fraction with positive result was subjected to HPLC for analysis of bioactive components.

Results: Out of many combinations of solvents, the methanol and dichloromethane combination in the ratio 6:4 has revealed two bands in TLC, among which the second band showed positive results for apoptotic and anti-leukemic activities. Further purification of second band through silica gel chromatography gave five fractions in which the 3^rd fraction gave positive results and it shows single peak during compositional analysis through HPLC.

Conclusion: The single peak revealed through HPLC indicates the presence of pure compound with apoptotic and anti-leukemia activities encouraging for further structural analysis.