Abstract:

Context: The currently available drugs for the management of pain, fever and inflammatory conditions presents with many known adverse effects, hence the search for new drugs without adverse effects is required.

Objective: To evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of aqueous extracts of Tinospora cordifolia (AETC) in rodents.

Materials and methods: The leaves of Tinospora cordifolia were identified and authenticated by Botanist. The air dried course powdered leaves were extracted with distilled water and used to evaluate analgesic action by Eddy’s hot plate method in mice and anti-inflammatory action by carrageenan induced paw edema in rats. It was tested in five groups of rodents (n=6) for each activity, using 100mg/kg and 200mg/kg of the test drug, 100mg/kg of test drug with 5mg/kg of diclofenac. Diclofenac 5mg/kg and distilled water were used as standard and control, respectively, for both analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities.

Results: Tinospora cordifolia showed significant increase in the reaction time (pain threshold) in doses of 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg, 100mg/kg with 5mg/kg of diclofenac after 30, 60 and 90 minutes of administration. In the same above doses, Tinospora cordifolia showed 32.63%, 36.63% and 40.5% inhibition of paw edema respectively at the end of three hours. With diclofenac the percentage of inhibition was 35.64.

Conclusion: The present study has shown that AETC has significant analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities. The results indicate that identification of active principle from the leaves may add a new, potential analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug to treat acute conditions.

Keywords: Tinospora cordifolia, anti-inflammatory activity, Eddy’s hot plate.

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