Abstract

EVALUATION OF INTESTINAL ANTI - INFLAMMATORY EFFECT OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ACHYRANTHES ASPERA LEAVES ON INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE IN WISTER ALBINO RATS

Somasundaram Ramachandran¹* and Gowri Sankar Tamarbha¹

ABSTRACT

The aim of present study was designed to evaluate intestinal antiinflammatory activity of methanolic extract of Achyranthes aspera leaves on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Wistar albino rats. Achyranthes aspera (Amaranthaceae) is one of the naturally growing plants distributed throughout various regions. A scrutiny of the literature revealed some notable pharmacological activities of the plant, used by various tribal communities and forest dwellers for the treatment of bowel symptoms, mainly leaves juice were used. The present work was therefore, undertaken to investigate the intestinal anti-inflammatory activity of the extract in animal model. Chemical induced experimental ulcerative colitis model in animals was established by rectal administration of 1ml of acetic acid. The treatment was done with the methanol extract with an initial dose of 300mg/kg body weight. After a last dose of the experiment, all the animals were sacrificed and the various histopathological studies were done. The parameters like colon mucosal damage index, disease activity index, myeloperoxidase activity and malondialdehyde levels were assessed. The extract showed significant protection against mucosal damage in chemical induced colitis in rat model. The results were expressed (P˂0.05) in decrease in myeloperoxidase activity and decrease in inflammation in the colon examined under histological evaluation. In this study of research work, we found that methanolic extract of Achyranthes aspera leaves have significant intestinal anti inflammatory activity on IBD in rats that is comparable to that of Sulfasalazine treated group as a standard drug and may be because of the presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, and phenolic compounds.

Keywords: Achyranthes aspera, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), Sulfasalazine, Anti inflammatory activity, Flavonoids.