Cosmos caudatus & Ocimum americanum → AChE

Target

AChE (Acetylcholinesterase). Inhibiting AChE slows the breakdown of acetylcholine, the mechanism behind approved Alzheimer’s drugs such as galantamine and huperzine A.

Source

Ethanol extracts of 13 vegetables commonly consumed by Sundanese and Javanese communities were screened. Two showed IC50 values under 1,000 µg/mL: Cosmos caudatus (kenikir) at 790.2 ± 20.7 µg/mL and Ocimum americanum at 519.4 ± 35.9 µg/mL. After liquid-liquid fractionation, the water fraction of C. caudatus (325.0 ± 18.3 µg/mL) and the n-hexane fraction of O. americanum (374.4 ± 42.1 µg/mL) were more active than their parent extracts. Pyridostigmine was used as the reference standard (IC50 0.344 ± 0.005 µg/mL).

Method

AChE inhibitory activity was measured with Ellman’s colorimetric method in a 96-well plate, using AChE from electric eel. See Methods for EnzymeBase’s general description of related methods; this specific in vitro assay format is not yet covered there and is a gap worth adding.

Original source

This entry curates findings from a third party’s published, peer-reviewed work. The finding belongs to the authors below; EnzymeBase is credited only for compiling it here.

Nuria, M. C., Suganda, A. G., Sukandar, E. Y., & Insanu, M. (2020). Acetylcholinesterase: Inhibitory activity of some Indonesian vegetables and fraction of selected plants. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 10(1), 101–107. https://doi.org/10.7324/japs.2020.101014

Authors’ affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Department of Pharmacology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia.

Data availability

The article is open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license and contains the full methodology and results tables. No separate raw dataset or repository is referenced in the publication beyond the article itself.

Last updated

2026-08-10