Immunomodulatory properties of ten Philippine medicinal plants (10HG) in Mus musculus BALB/c mice.

Abstract

Ten medicinal plants were investigated for their possible immunomodulatory activity using a murine model. Tetanus toxoid-induced IgG production was compared between plant extract-treated groups and the negative control group of mice. The colorimetric indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to detect IgG in the antiserum. The absorbance values of the biological replicates (n = 5) of each group were subjected to four parameter nonlinear regression analysis to generate the best-fit curve where the median effective concentration (EC50) was determined. Comparisons among EC50 values were conducted using one-way ANOVA. It was found that there is a statistically significant difference in the EC50 of the control and treatment groups (F = 6.874; p = < 0.0001). Tukey post hoc test revealed that the EC50 of A. sativum (4.339 ± 0.213; p = 0.0004), B. balsamifera (4.552 ± 0.234; p <0.0001), C. alata (4.358 ± 0.148; p = 0.0001), M. charantia (4.366 ± 0.419; p = 0.0051), M. cordifolia (4.300 ± 0.199; p = 0.0002), P. guajava (4.303 ± 0.120; p = 0.0038), P. pellucida (4.369 ± 0.122; p <0.0001), Q. indica (4.404 ± 0.110; p <0.0001), and V. negundo (4.488 ± 0.343; p <0.0001) were statistically significantly higher than the negative control. This may be indicative of the plants’ potential to stimulate IgG production in a murine model. Moreover, multiple comparisons test identified statistically significant differences between some pairing of plant groups. Thus, it is recommended that the combination of plant extracts and its ability to stimulate the IgG production in mice be investigated.