Acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibitory potential of standardized extract of Trigonella foenum graecum L and its constituents

Ethno pharmacological approach has provided several leads to identify potential new drugs from plant sources, including those for memory disorders. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) give a symptomatic relief to some of the clinical manifestations of the disease. The main objective of this study is to standardize the extract of Trigonella foenum graecum L with trigonelline by HPTLC method and determine the in vitro AChE inhibitory activity of Trigonella foenum graecum L and its constituents using galanthamine as a reference. Different concentrations of hydro alcoholic extract of Trigonella foenum graecum and trigonelline were subjected to HPTLC analysis using the mobile phase n propanol, methanol and water (4:1:2, v/v). The R-f of trigonelline was found to be 0.43, and the correlation coefficient of 0.99 was indicative of good linear dependence of peak area on concentration. The concentration of trigonelline was found to be 13 mg g(-1) w/w in the hydro alcoholic extract of Trigonella foenum graecum. The AChE inhibitory activity of crude fenugreek seed extracts, fractions and trigonelline was evaluated using Ellman's method in 96-well micro plate's assay and TLC bioassay detection. The ethyl acetate fraction of the alcohol extract (IC50 53.00 +/- 17.33 mu g/ml), and total alkaloid fraction (IC50 9.23 +/- 6.08 mu g/ml) showed potential AChE inhibition. Trigonelline showed IC50 233 +/- 0.12 mu M. Galanthamine was used as standard and it showed inhibition of acetyl cholinesterase with an IC50 value of 1.27 +/- 0.21 mu M. (C) 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.