Screening of anticoagulant activity from aqueous extract of parkia speciosa pericarp / Nor-Fatin Aina Azmi

Parkia speciosa or commonly known as ‘petai’ by locals is one of the famous plants that is abundantly found in Malaysia. The seeds are usually eaten raw (as ulam) or cooked (Lim, 2012). However, peels or pericarp is usually the waste part of the Parkia speciosa seed. The waste product has not generally been given attention with a view to be used or recycled. Hence, the current study was initiated to identify the anticoagulant activity of the aqueous extract of the Parkia speciosa pericarp. Therefore, the proposed study started with the collection of 1 kg of fresh Parkia speciosa pericarp, cutting them into smaller pieces and drying them under the sun. The dried pericarp were then extracted by using the decoction method with distilled water as solvent. Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), prothrombin time (PT) and thrombin time (TT) tests were performed on normal control plasma spiked with the different concentrations of the extract in duplicates. Finally, the clotting time were recorded and analysed using one-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc Dunnet’s test. aPTT and TT results obtained showed significant results (p < 0.05) at the highest concentration of extract which is was 100%. Contrary to aPTT and TT, no significant effect was observed for PT. Hence, the aqueous extract of Parkia speciosa pericarp was considered to possess anticoagulant effect which interfere with the extrinsic and common pathways.