AUTHOR=Zahiruddin Sultan , Parveen Abida , Khan Washim , Ibrahim Mohammad , Want Muzamil Y. , Parveen Rabea , Ahmad Sayeed 

TITLE=Metabolomic Profiling and Immunomodulatory Activity of a Polyherbal Combination in Cyclophosphamide-Induced Immunosuppressed Mice

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.647244

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2021.647244

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>The study was aimed to develop a characterized polyherbal combination as an immunomodulator containing <italic>Phyllanthus emblica</italic> L., <italic>Piper nigrum</italic> L., <italic>Withania somnifera</italic> (L.) Dunal, and <italic>Tinospora cordifolia</italic> (Willd.) Miers. Through response surface methodology (RSM), the ratio of aqueous extracts of four plant materials was optimized and comprised 49.76% of <italic>P. emblica</italic>, 1.35% of <italic>P. nigrum</italic>, 5.41% of <italic>W. somnifera</italic>, and 43.43% of <italic>T. cordifolia</italic> for optimum immunomodulatory activity. The optimized combination showed antioxidant potential and contains more than 180 metabolites, out of which gallic acid, quercetin, ellagic acid, caffeic acid, kaempferitrin, and <italic>p</italic>-coumaric acid are some common and significant metabolites found in plant extracts and in polyherbal combination. Treatment with the polyherbal combination of different doses in cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppressed mice significantly (p &lt; 0.01) enhanced the subsets of immune cells such as natural killer (NK) cells (60%), B cells (18%), CD4 cells (14%), and CD8 cells (7%). The characterized polyherbal combination exhibited potent immunomodulatory activity, which can be further explored clinically for its therapeutic applicability.</p>