Pharmacological Assessment of Azelaic Acid Isolated From Duckweeds in Malda District of West Bengal, India

Plants have a large profile of useful metabolites, aquatic plants are also containing some bioactive compounds whose efficacy has to be ascertained. Duckweeds are tropical to subtropical in distribution and they occupy stagnant shallow to moderately deep waterbodies and exhibit luxuriant growth. They are nowadays considered not only fish-feed and poultry bird-feed but as a source of nutraceuticals, therefore pharmacological assessment of isolated major secondary metabolites is necessary. Duckweeds mainly Lemna minor L. biomass was collected from seven aquatic habitats and cultured on Gamborg’s B5 basal liquid medium to harvest uniform physiologically active cells from mid-log growth phase. Preparative HPLC and subsequent LCMS profile helped to isolate and quantify some bioactive secondary metabolites, azelaic acid is one of these compounds. To assess the proposed drug likeliness of this compound, Swiss ADME and Swiss Dock platforms were used to ascertain in-silico pharmacological attributes of azelaic acid. Azelaic acid in aqueous methanol and 0.01% formic acid solvent phase was identified with retention time of 10.58 through LCMS chromatogram profile screened through Metlin Agilent database. Its quantitative range was found to be 2.32μg/gm of fresh fronds of lesser duckweeds. Upon assessed with Swiss ADME and Swiss Dock (Auto Dock Vina), the test compound was found to possess pharmacological applicability and might be considered as a possible ligand programmed to bind with SARS-CoV spike protein. However, immunokinetics studies has to be performedas per recommended wet laboratory testing protocols. Duckweeds contain several bioactive compounds especially azelaic acid, which exhibited its prospective candidature for considering as a potent source for drug formulations.