Abstract:
Water and oil extracts from Pogostemon cab I in leaves were collected using hydro steam
distillation to evaluate their anti-platelet aggregation activity. The effect of these
extracts in concentrations of 10%, 25%, 50%, 100% as inhibitors of platelet aggregation were
tested on plasma collected from four rabbit blood samples. Two replicates for each
concentration of extracts were subjected to a PR00012 E-max precision microplate reader
assay using Giemsa dye to measure the platelet aggregation. Blood samples treated with
200 pg/mL aspirin served as positive control in this experiment while untreated blood plasma
was used as the negative control. The optical densities obtained at 405 nm were utilized to
estimate the percent inhibition of platelet aggregation (PIPA) of the treatments. Results
showed that pure concentrations (100%) of both oil and water extracts have the highest mean
PIPA values at 93.35% and 82.84% respectively, among the extract concentrations used. The
pure extracts also had a higher anti-platelet aggregation activity compared to the untreated
blood plasma (at p = 0.018 and p = 0.039, respectively). Varying concentrations of the oil
leaf extracts were directly correlated to the anti-platelet aggregation activity of the plant
(R2 = 0.98 and R2 = 0.89, respectively). The platelet aggregation inhibition characteristic of
P. cablin can be used as a basis for developing plant-based compounds as an alternative for
commercial anti-platelet aggregation drugs.
