ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants possess healing properties and unlike synthetic drugs, which may cause adverse side effects. A herbal medicine or a phytophar-maceutical preparation can be defined as a medicine derived exclusively from a whole plant or parts of plants and manufactured in a crude form or as a purified pharmaceutical formulation. However, the World Health Organization emphasizes that between 70 and 95% of the population residing in numerous developing countries still rely more on traditional herbal medicines for their primary medication against diseases. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidant molecules that can play an important role in the pathogenesis of iron-deficiency anemia. The plant extract inhibits nitrite formation by directly competing with oxygen in the reaction with nitric oxide. In this study, nitric oxide radical scavenging effect of Carica papaya in a concentration of 0.5 mg/ml was found to be more in n-butanol extract (74.28%) compared with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, and aqueous extracts. Antihemolytic activity indicated that n-butanol extract of Triticum aestivum grass and Piper betel leaves and petroleum ether extracts of C. papaya showed maximum percent of antihemolysis. The highest hydroxyl (OH) radical scavenging activity had shown 60.3% in n-butanol extract of wheatgrass.
