Abstract

IN VITRO AND IN VIVO ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, ANALGESIC AND ANTIPYRETIC ACTIVITY TESTS OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF DESMODIUM HETEROCARPON (L.) DC

Shams Ara Khan*, Mst. Shahina Akter, Apu Kumar Das, Muhammad Torequl Islam, Md. Rokonuzzman and Mumtahina Meem

ABSTRACT

Desmodium heterocarpon (L.) DC (family: Fabaceae) is traditionally used in the treatment of various diseases including febrile diseases, rheumatism, dysentery and bleeding wounds. This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic activities of the methanolic whole plant extract of D. heterocarpon. A preliminary phytochemical investigation was followed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activity. For this, protein denaturation test (in vitro) was performed in egg albumin method, acetic acid induced writhing and yeast induced pyrexia tests were performed in Swiss albino mice by using acetyl salicylic acid, diclofenac sodium and paracetamol as standards, respectively. Graph Pad Prism (version: 6.0) software was used to perform statistical calculations of laboratory data (for in vitro and in vivo studies) by considering p < 0.05 at 95% confidence intervals. The results suggest that the extract possesses alkaloids, tannins, steroids, saponins, gums
and reducing sugars. The extract concentration-dependently inhibited protein denaturation, where the highest %inhiition was seen with 320 μg/mL concentration (63.13%). The crude extract illustrated significant analgesic effect in dose dependent manner. Antipyretic effect of the tested plant extract was also statistically significant. Interestingly, the D. heterocarpon extract at 200 mg/kg body weight pre-treated with the standard drug paracetamol (100 mg/kg b.w) showed better anti-pyretic effect in experimental animals. Taken together, D. heterocarpon contains many important secondary metabolites and showed significant anti- inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic effects. Further research is necessary to isolate the responsible phytotherapeutic lead comounds from this hopeful medicinal plant.

Keywords: Desmodium heterocarpon; anti-inflammatory; analgesic; anti-pyretic; phytotherapeutic.