Immunosuppressive activity of terpenoids from Mesua ferrea, Ficus benghalensis and Butea frondosa on human whole blood

Abstract

<strong>Background and aims:</strong> Terpenoids are one of the largest groups of natural compounds and is generally used for the treatment of human diseases e.g. taxol (anticancer drug) and artimesinin (antimalarial drug). Thus, these agents (terpenoids) derived from medicinal plant products that are effective against intracellular or extracellular infections and these are urgently required. Therefore, this research was directed to assess its immunosuppressive activity of crude terpenoids on hepatitis B vaccine containing surface antigen (HBsAg) on human whole blood.<br /><br /><strong>Methods:</strong> In this study, crude terpenoids (6.25-25 mg/ml; 50 µl) extricate from the leaves of these medicinal plants and evaluated its immunosuppressive activity on HBsAg <br />(20 µg/ml) using human whole blood in order to determine the analysis of blood <br />counts (flow cytometry), cytotoxicity assay (MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol–2-yl]-2, <br />5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) and nitric oxide (NO) production from cell culture supernatant.<br /><br /><strong>Results:</strong> The results showed that these terpenoids showed drastic decrease in monocytes and granulocytes count but increased in lymphocytes count and inhibited NO production at higher doses (25 mg/ml; 50 µl).<br /><br /><strong>Conclusion:</strong> These terpenoids exhibited immunosuppressive activity and could be a promising source of medicinally important natural compound.