Abstract
In present research, an attempt was made to explore the pharmacological potential of Sonchus asper. The crude extract of Sonchus asper and its resultant fractions were tested for the carbonic annhydrase and urease inhibitory actions. The chloroform fraction of Sonchus asper exhibited maximum carbonic anhydrase II inhibition of 58.0%, followed by the plant crude extract, n-hexane fraction and aqueous fraction with 42.6, 30.2 and 21.3% inhibition respectively. In urease inhibitory bioassays, n-hexane fraction possesses highest urease inhibition capacity of 24.1%, followed by chloroform fraction (19.1%), crude extract (5.4%) and aqueous fraction (3.4%). These results indicate that Sonchus asper exhibits carbonic anhydrase and urease inhibitory activities. The higher carbonic anhydrase and urease inhibitory profile observed respectively for chloroform and n-hexane fractions of Sonchus asper propose concentration of respective active compounds, which warrants further detail studies for their isolation and molecular identification.