Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of bark and fruit extracts of Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev: A perspective from bio-prospecting assays to scientometric approach

Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev, a type of tree in the Leguminosae family, has several traditional uses. This study investigates the antioxidant properties, phenolic and flavonoid contents, nitric acid modulatory effects, and cytotoxicity of methanolic and chloroform extracts of the bark and fruits of Faidherbia albida. Various assays were performed to evaluate the antioxidant properties of the extracts, including the Folin-Ciocalteu and AlCl3 tests, the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), the purple diphenyl picrylhydrazine (DPPH) scavenging ability, and the Ferric Reducing/Antioxidant Power (FRAP). The ability of the extracts to modulate the production of nitric oxide (NO) was assessed, and the cytotoxicity of the extracts was evaluated in cultured cells. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis was performed on related research documents. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the extracts in cultivated RAW 264.7 cells. A bibliometric analysis of 362 research documents related to F. albida published since 1913 was performed to understand the current state of knowledge to identify areas for further research using bibliometric computer packages. The results showed that the bark methanolic extract had the highest phenolic content, while the chloroform extract of the fruits had the highest flavonoid content. The chloroform extract of the fruits exhibited the highest inhibition of NO production. The extracts exhibited low cytotoxicity. The methanolic extract of the bark exhibited the strongest radical scavenging activities for FRAP and DPPH. The ORAC assay revealed that the antioxidant capacity of the methanolic extract of the fruits and the chloroform extract of the bark were approximately four times greater than that of quercetin, which is a known antioxidant compound. F. albida exhibits a significant antioxidant activity, which is influenced by both solvent polarity and specific botanical components.