Coagulant and anticoagulant activities in Jatropha curcas latex

Jatropha curcas Linn. (Euphorbiaceae), a medicinal plant commonly grown in the Tropics, is traditionally used as a haemostatic. Investigation of the coagulant activity of the latex of Jatropha curcas showed that whole latex significantly (P<0.01) reduced the clotting time of human blood. Diluted latex, however, prolonged the clotting time: at high dilutions, the blood did not clot at all. This indicates that Jatropha curcas latex possesses both procoagulant and anticoagulant activities. Prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) tests on plasma confirm these observations. Solvent partitioning of the latex with ethyl acetate and butanol led to a partial separation of the two opposing activities: at low concentrations, the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited a procoagulant activity, while the butanol fraction had the highest anticoagulant activity. The residual aqueous fraction had no significant effect on the clotting time of blood and the PT but slightly prolonged the APTT.