Analgesic Activity and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of The Ethanolic Extract of Cassia Auriculata Leaves

Abstract

Drugs which are in use presently for the management of pain and inflammatory conditions are either narcotics e.g. opioids or non-narcotics e.g. salicylates and corticosteroids e.g. hydrocortisone. All of these drugs present well known side and toxic effects. More over synthetic drugs are very expensive to develop since, for the successful introduction of a new product approximately 3000-4000 compounds are to be synthesized, screened and tested whose cost of development ranges from 0.5 to 5 million dollars. On the contrary many medicines of plant origin had been used since long time without any adverse effects. Interest in natural sources to provide treatments for pain, palliatives or curatives for a variety of maladies or recreational use reaches back to the earliest points of history. Cassia auriculata is used in Ayurveda for the treatment for antidiabetic, antiviral and anti spasmodic activities. The ethanolic extract of Cassia auriculata leaves has been reported for various biological activities like skin diseases, anticancer, laxative and purgative.In the present investigation focus to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of ethanolic extact of Cassia auriculata leaves. Acute toxicity studies showed that the ethanolic extract is safe up to 3g/kg body weight. The phytochemical screening of ethanolic extract showed the presence of alkaloid, flavonoid, flavone glycosides, saponin and protein. The results of the analgesic activity carried out by Eddy’s hot plate and tail flick methods showed that the ethanolic extract have significant analgesic activity (p<0.001) compared to control. The result of anti-inflammatory activity studies using carageenin induced hind paw edema method reveal that ethanolic extract showed to possess significant activity (p<0.01) in reducing rat paw edema volume at both the tested levels (300mg and 500mg/kg body weight). Flavonoids are known to target prostaglandins which are involved in the late phase of pain perception and acute inflammation and by its direct inhibition of inflammatory mediators and enzymes. Hence, the presence of flavonoid in Cassia auriculata leaves extract may be contributory to the analgesic and anti inflammatory activity.