Isolation and Characterisation of Bioactive Steroidal Compounds From the Leaf Extract of Sarcochlamys pulcherrima

Sarcochlamys pulcherrima (Roxb.) Gaudich is a small, traditionally used medicinal plant belonging to the Urticaceae family. The leaves of the plant are commonly consumed by different tribes inhabiting the northeastern states of India. This work involves dereplicating ethanolic leaf extract of S. pulcherrima, leading to the isolation of two new steroidal compounds-SP-C1 and SP-C2-characterised by single crystal x-ray diffraction analysis. The compound SP-C2 displayed significant antioxidant properties with an IC₅₀ value of 4.75 ± 0.22 µg mL^-1 in the 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH^•) radical scavenging assay along with ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) value of 1792.40 ± 0.11 µM, which is comparable to that of the employed standard antioxidant ascorbic acid (2032.60 ± 0.12 µM). SP-C2 also exhibited significant α-glucosidase inhibitory potential with an IC₅₀ value of 506.53 ± 0.24 µg mL^-1 in close resemblance with that of the standard α-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose (420.32 ± 0.62 µg mL^-1).