Abstract

MEMBRANE STABILIZATION ASSAY FOR ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY YIELDS FALSE POSITIVE RESULTS FOR SAMPLES CONTAINING TRACES OF ETHANOL AND METHANOL

Mahendra V. Kardile#, Umesh B. Mahajan#, Haidarali M. Shaikh, Sameer N. Goyal and Chandragouda R. Patil*

ABSTRACT

There is an upsurge in the reports on erythrocyte haemolysis assay being used as a simple and rapid tool for screening of drugs and phytochemicals for anti-inflammatory activity. However, in case of hydroalcoholic extracts, there is a possibility of the trace amounts of ethanol or methanol retained even after drying. These traces are not accounted in the assay units representing the solvent control assay units. The present study was designed to substantiate the effects of low concentrations of ethanol and methanol on the heat induced haemolysis. It was observed that the presence of ethanol and methanol at concentrations as low as 0.1 μl/ml exert significant membrane stabilizing activity. Thus, this assay may give misleading results if the test drug solution contains even slightest amount of ethanol or methanol. Therefore, present study suggested that the heat-induced erythrocyte haemolysis assay is not suitable for testing membrane stabilizing and anti-inflammatory activity of the test samples containing ethanol or methanol.

Keywords: Erythrocyte stabilization; Membrane stabilization; RBC haemolysis.