Abstract

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANALGESIC ACTIVITY OF ARGYREIA NERVOSA LEAVES EXTRACT

Mathew George*, Lincy Joseph, Hemendra Gupta and Priya G. Udayan

ABSTRACT

Natural products are a source of synthetic and traditional herbal medicine and are still the primary health care system. The presence of various life sustaining constituents in plants made scientists to investigate these plants for their uses in treating certain infective diseases and management of chronic wounds. Argyreia nervosa (family: Convolvulaceae) is a hallucinogenic plant. It is also known as elephant creeper or woolly morning glory. Traditionally, the plant has been used therapeutically for its wide range of clinical effects such as antiviral, antibacterial, anti-fungal, analgesic and anti-inflammatory. The present study is aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity of its ethanolic leaf extract. The phytochemical screening of the ethanolic leaf extract showed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrate, flavonoids, triterpenoids, proteins, saponins, steroids, tannins, etc. Carrageenam induced paw edema method was used for evaluating potential of plant drug on inflammation and the analgesic activity was evaluated by the acetic acid-induced writhing method and hot plate method. From the study it was evident that the ethanolic leaf extract of Argyreia nervosa possess significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity and the study may be helpful to investigate more on the activities of the plant.

Keywords: Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Argyreia nervosa, Hot plate method.