A Review on the Phytochemical and Pharmacological Activitities of Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb. Tinjauan Fitokimia dan Aktivitas Farmakologi dari Gambas Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb

Indonesia is a country with a tropical climate, so it can be a place to live for various plants in the world. The use of plants in Indonesia as an alternative treatment requires a lot of research because many plants have not been studied for their chemical compounds and pharmacological effects. Ethnopharmacological studies of a plant can be the basis for medicinal plant research. Empirically, Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb. (angled luffa, gambas) is a plant that has various therapeutic benefits. This study aimed to determine pharmacognostic properties (macroscopic and microscopic fradments of crude drugs), chemical compound content, and pharmacological activity of L. acutangula extract in literature studies. Literature searching were performed by online searching using Google Scholar, Science Direct, and PubMed as the databases. L. acutangula has been used empirically in Indonesia for helping in the treatment of various diseases. The phytochemical content of L. acutangula extract will affect its pharmacological activity. Phytochemical analysis of L. acutangula leaf powder, namely there are chemical compounds of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, amino acids, and lipids. Analysis of the ethanol extract of L. acutangula contained chemical compounds of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, and steroids. Analysis of the aqueous extract of L. acutangula contained alkaloids, saponins, carbohydrates, terpenoids, and triterpenoids. The pharmacological activities of L. acutangula included antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, immunomodulatory, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-thyroid. L. acutangula which contain various phytochemical compounds is potentially to be further studied to develop its pharmacological benefits.


Introduction
Indonesia's natural wealth is very diverse, including plants, animals, and minerals. Plants in Indonesia have many benefits, one of which is as medicinal plant. Angled luffa (Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.) is a plant originating from India, especially the western, central and southern regions of India. This plant can grow in tropical and sub-tropical climates, but it is found in many parts of Indonesia (Raja et al., 2017).
L. acutangula is from Cucurbitaceae family. The Cucurbitaceae family consists of various squash, melon, and pumpkin, including plants such as cucurbits, pumpkins, luffas, and watermelons (Tupe et al., 2013). The community has widely used L. acutangula from generation to generation. Almost all parts of the plant can be used, the parts that are widely used are the fruit, seeds, leaves, and roots. L. acutangula has been used by Indonesians for food, vegetables and to treat skin and is used to treat various diseases, such as skin disorders due to fungi. L. acutangula is mainly consumed/cooked as a vegetable, and PHARMACY: Jurnal Farmasi Indonesia p-ISSN 1693-3591 (Pharmaceutical Journal of Indonesia) e-ISSN 2579-910X Vol.17 No. 02 Desember 2020 also its dry form is used as a cleaning sponge (Anitha & Miruthula, 2014). Luffa seeds have a very bitter taste and are empirically used in the Madura area, East Java, by some residents as a medicine when exposed to malaria. One of the medicinal plants traditionally used to treat diabetes mellitus is luffa seeds (L. acutangula L. Roxb). Various research results have shown the effect of lowering blood sugar levels from the seeds or fruit of luffa in the alloxaninduced diabetes test method and glucose load. The acute toxicity test shows that the luffa fruit extract is not toxic up to a dose of 3000 mg / kgBB rats (Jyothi et al., 2010).
Indonesia has many medicinal plants that have not been studied for their chemical compound content and potential pharmacological activity. Phytochemicals are naturally occurring bioactive compounds found in plant foods that work with nutrients and dietary fiber to protect against disease. Phytochemicals are non-nutritional plant chemicals with protective or disease prevention properties, some of which are lycopene in tomatoes, isoflavones in soybeans & flavonoids in fruits (Tupe et al., 2013). Ethnopharmacological studies of a plant can be the basis for medicinal plant research. L. acutangula is a plant that has therapeutic benefits, as are luffa seeds. Therefore, it is necessary to study the chemical compounds in L. acutangula and the pharmacological activity of the L. acutangula extract. The phytochemical content of luffa extract will affect its pharmacological activity.
Pharmacognosy L. acutangula Description L. acutangula fruits are cylindrical or club-shaped, pale yellowbrown, 9-12 cm long and 2-4 cm wide. It tapers towards the base and is covered with 8-10 longitudinal ribs. There are three spaces, where the inside is fibrous and can be easily removed from the outside, on the inside there are seeds of luffa. The seeds are black, taste bitter, oval. Generally 0.6-0.8 cm in length with a width of 0.5 -0.6 cm (Vaidya M, 2016). The cross-section of the L. acutangula fruit can be seen in Figure 1.

Taxonomy of L. acutangula
The taxonomy L. acutangula is described as follow (

Macroscopic tests
This method is used to find the morphological, and color specificities of the luffa crude drugs. The shape and color of the luffa can be seen in Figure 2. The appearance of the fruit of L. acutangula is greenish-brown and when it is old it becomes yellowish-brown, extending like a tube with a rounded tip, tapering to the base and the skin is wrinkled and jagged. The appearance of the leaves is brownish yellow petiole, 3-8 cm long; slightly bent, wrinkled and angled with pale / light green lamina, 6-9 cm long, wrinkled and wide. The appearance of the luffa seeds looks black, 11-12 mm long, has an oval flat shape rounded at the tip with a tapered edge (Al-Snafi, 2019).

Microscopic test
Microscopic test was carried out on crude drug powder and observed general L. acutangula leaf fragments by observing under a microscope. Microscopic observation of L. acutangula crude drug can be seen in Figure 3.
Appearance of L. acutangula seeds using a SEM microscope, it was seen that the seed epidermis was surrounded by a thin cuticle, there were upper and lower epidermis. The lower epidermis has many trichomes (uniseriate multicellular, uniseriate unicellular). Collenchyma is present over the lower epidermal region. Palisade cells (like blocks) are present below the upper epidermis. Sclernchymatous sheeth mingles with xylem and phloem, xylem lignified, phloem unlignified. Parenchyma cells occupy the remaining space (King, et al., 2017). The appearance of L. acutangula seeds using Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can be seen in Figure 4. 4. Phytochemical test of L. acutangula leaf powder Phytochemical testing of L. acutangula leaf powder can be seen in Table 2.  Specific parameters of extract 1. Phytochemical qualitative test of ethanol extract and water extract of L. acutangula Phytochemical testing of L. acutangula leaf extract can be seen in Table 3. Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS) to identify and determine the number of chemical compounds contained in a sample of L. acutangula fruit methanol extract (Jaysingrao & Sunil, 2019). The quantitative content of L. acutangula fruit extract can be seen in Table 4.    Non specific parameters of extract Non-specific parameters are all aspects that are not directly related to pharmacological activity but affect the safety and stability aspects of the extracts and the resulting preparations. The data below is a standardization obtained from Ayurvedic pharmacopeia on L. acutangula (Jyothi, et al., 2010).

Determination of total ash content
The total ash content of L. acutangula is not more than 16%. 2. Determination of acid soluble ash content The acid insoluble ash content of L. acutangula is not more than 4%. 3. Determintion soluble in water and alcohol L. acutangula water-soluble extract is not more than 13%, while the alcohol-soluble extract of L. acutangula is not more than 6%. 4.
Microbial contamination and determination of total fungi Foreign object not more than 2%.

Pharmacological Activities
L. acutangula has been widely used by the community from generation to generation. Almost all parts of the plant can be used, the parts that are widely used are the fruit, seeds, leaves and, roots. The fruit is used in the treatment of the enlarged spleen, helps detoxify the liver, helps with constipation, treats edema from its diuretic effect, anti-diabetes and stomach worm medication. Seeds are used in their oil form for skincare. The fresh leaves are used as a bandage for diseases such as enlarged spleen, ringworm, leprosy. The powdered leaves can be applied topically mixed with garlic to get rid of leprosy. The leaves can also be useful in the treatment of dysentery. While the root with the addition of milk/water can help in removing kidney stones (Shrivastava & Roy, 2013;Raja et al., 2017;Chanda et al., 2019).
Some of the published research results regarding the benefits of published L. acutangula can be seen in Table 5.

Major findings Reference Antimicrobial
The antibacterial effect of ethanolic extract of L. acutangula was studied against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. Nanoparticel of L. acutangula extract has antibacterial and antifungal activities against E. coli and Saccharomyces cervisiae (Menghani et el., 2011;Taruna et al., 2016) Antiparasitic The methanolic extract of L. acutangula showed moderate anthelmintic activity. At a concentration of 10 mg /ml, it causes paralysis and death of stomach worms after> 90 minutes (Rahman, 2014) Anticancer The anticancer activity of ethanol and water extracts (200 and 400 mg/kg BW, of L. acutangula was evaluated in mice for a significant reduction, tumor volume, and tumor weight of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cells.

Antioxidant
The methanol extract of L. acutangula fruit showed antioxidant activity, which results were higher than that of the hexane and water extracts.

Anti-inflammatory
The ethanol seed extract of L. acutangula for antiinflammation using the carrageenan-induced rat foot edema method and analgesic activity using the flick and tail immersion method. The chemical compound content of L. acutangula fruit extract has an antiinflammatory effect (Gill, et al, 2011;Jaysingrao & Sunil, 2019) Analgesic The ethanol seed extract of L. acutangula as an analgesic in rats using the flick and tail immersion method.

Toxicity of L. acutangula
The LD50 value of water and methanol extract from luffa fruit obtained a value of 4 g / kg body weight (Dashora and Chauhan, 2015). While the LD50 value for ethanol extract is 500 mg / kg, and petroleum ether extract 350 mg / kg (Ibrahim et al., 2014).

Conclusion
L. acutangula is a plant originating from India. It is widely grown and found in Indonesia and has been widely used by the Indonesian people both from its fruit, leaves, seeds, and roots. Based on ethnopharmacological studies, L. acutangula is often used in traditional medicine in various countries. Phytochemical analysis of L. acutangula leaf powder, namely, chemical compounds of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, amino acids, and lipids. Analysis of the ethanol extract of L. acutangula contained chemical compounds of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, and steroids. Analysis of the aqueous extract of L. acutangula contained alkaloids, saponins, carbohydrates, terpenoids, triterpenoids. Pharmacological activity in pre-clinical trials showed that L. acutangula has the potential to be antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, immunomodulatory, antiparasitic, anti inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-thyroid.

Acknowledgement
The compilers would like to thank the Faculty of Medicine and LPPM UPN Veteran Jakarta so that the preparation of this narrative review can be completed.  Vol.17 No. 02 Desember 2020: 396-406