Phytochemical profiling, In vitro antioxidant and identification of urease inhibitory metabolites from Erythrina suberosa flowers by GC-MS analysis and docking studies

Abstract The plants of the Erythrina genus possess tremendous pharmacological properties and thus are utilized in traditional medicines owing to their bioactivities. In the present study, methanolic extract (EsM) of flowers of Erythrina suberosa Roxb. and its fractions (n-hexane (EsH), chloroform (EsC) and aqueous (EsW) parts) were tested for preliminary phytochemical analysis, antioxidant and urease inhibition activities. The EsM extract was found to be most active for antioxidant activity, whereas the EsH extract showed the highest anti-urease potential with an inhibition value of 62.9 % (at a concentration of 100 µg/ml), while the other extracts were least active. The EsH extract being most active against urease enzyme, was further subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, which revealed the tentative presence of 18 secondary metabolites of various classes. Furthermore, the in-silico studies of the major compounds as detected in EsH extract by GC-MS analysis were performed to correlate the potential interaction of compounds with the active site of the enzyme. The selected compounds were docked against the urease enzyme, and their affinities were compared. Binding affinity data and interaction patterns of all the studied phytochemicals indicated that these compounds could inhibit urease enzyme synergistically and can be further studied to prevent ulcer and related problems. It is, therefore concluded that E. suberosa flowers possess interesting antioxidant and anti-urease potential and thus could further be adopted for industrial and biopharmaceutical applications.