Research Article
Identification of Potential Diuretic and Laxative Drug
Candidates from Avicennia officinalis L. Bark through In Vivo
Mice Model Studies and In Vitro Gas Chromatography-Mass
Spectrometry and Molecular Docking Analysis
Md. Nazmul Islam , Md. Fahim Hasan , Aishwarja Dey , Bishwajit Bokshi ,
Asish Kumar Das , Samir Kumar Sadhu , and Nripendra Nath Biswas
Pharmacy Discipline, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
Correspondence should be addressed to Nripendra Nath Biswas; nnathbiswas@gmail.com
Received 24 May 2022; Revised 23 June 2022; Accepted 16 August 2022; Published 19 September 2022
Academic Editor: Arham Shabbir
Copyright © 2022 Md. Nazmul Islam et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Background. Avicennia officinalis is a medicinal plant that has traditionally been used as a diuretic, anti-infective, and anti-
asthmatic. Our investigation was designed to explore the diuretic and laxative potentials of different fractions of this plant’s bark
extract as well as the identification of possible drug candidates for the activity. Methods. Collected bark was extracted in ethanol
and fractionated in different polar and nonpolar solvents, i.e., water, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane. Phytoconstituents
were identified following the published protocols and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In the diuretic test, Na
+
and K
+
ions were measured using a flame photometer whereas the Cl
-
ion content was measured by titrimetric method against
AgNO
3
. In the laxative test, feces amount and consistency were also measured. Molecular docking analysis was conducted using
the “Vina Wizard” program in PyRx-Python Prescription 0.8. Results. Phytochemical analysis indicated that alkaloids, tannins,
flavonoids, saponins, glycosides, and terpenoids were detected in the most bioactive crude extracts, whereas alkaloids, terpenoids,
saponins, and gums were found in bioactive n-hexane fraction and steroids, glycosides, and terpenoids were found positive in
chloroform fraction. Almost all the fractions demonstrated a dose-dependent increment of stool production with a soft con-
sistency; however, the chloroform fraction was found to be the most active (p < 0.001). e crude extract and n-hexane fractions
significantly increased (p < 0.01) the urinary output at the dose of 200 and 400 mg/kg. e concentrations of Na
+
,K
+
, and Cl
-
in
collected urine were found to be more compared with the control group. e GC-MS analysis identified seven compounds in
bioactive n-hexane fraction (phenolic and ester-type mainly) whereas seven other compounds (acidic and ester-type mainly) were
identified in chloroform fraction. In molecular docking, two drug candidates of this extract (2,4-bis(2-phenylpropan-2-yl)phenol
and 2-[4-[2-(dimethylamino)-2-oxo-1,1-diphenylethyl]phenyl]-2-phenylacetic acid) showed excellent binding affinity with the
receptor compared with furosemide. Conclusion. A. officinalis bark might be a potential source of bioactive compounds for
treating hypertension, edema, and constipation.
1. Introduction
Historically, people have been using plants as a precursor of
many important traditional as well as modern medicines
since ancient times [1]. With the aims of getting novel and
better therapeutic effects, reducing the side effects as well as
total health care cost, people in this modern age still prefer
traditional natural medicines over synthetic drugs in many
cases. So far, a wide variety of plants’ secondary metabolites
(e.g., flavonoids, phenols, glycosides, saponins, stilbenes,
tannins, alkaloids, amines, betalains, terpenoids, etc.) have
been reported to have many useful pharmacological prop-
erties such as anticancer, antibacterial, analgesic, anti-in-
flammatory, antitumor, and antiviral [2, 3]. e mangrove
Hindawi
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2022, Article ID 4409250, 14 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4409250