The antioxidant, general toxicity and insecticidal activities of Nepeta scrophularioides Rech. f. extracts in different developmental stages.

The essence of the present study is to focus on the antioxidant, general toxicity and insecticidal properties of the extracts of Nepeta scrophularioides Rech.f. during different developmental (vegetative, flowering, post-flowering) stages. The samples were subjected to screening for their possible antioxidant activities by using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The extracts of the flowering and the post-flowering stages showed higher antioxidant activity than those from the vegetative stage. The MeOH extracts of N. scrophularioides in different development stages were tested for cytotoxicity by brine shrimp toxicity assay. The result obtained for the bio assay was found to be significantly lethality. Among the samples, the extracts of flowering stage were found to be the most active with a LC50 value of 0.078 mg/mL. All three extracts showed significant insecticidal activity at the concentration of 20 mg/mL dose of test sample after 24 h. The extracts of vegetative and post-flowering were the most potent samples.