Pharmacological Study of Medicinal Plant Calophyllum inophyllum L. on Swiss Albino Mice in the Management of Pain and Inflammation

Aims: To investigate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect of ethanol extract of Calophyllum inophyllum (Family: clusiaceae) in Swiss albino mice.

Study Design: For the purpose of this experiment the leaf extract was divided into two concentrations, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight respectively. And then they were used to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity of the plant.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University, Banani, Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh, within a period of one year.

Methodology: The analgesic activity was conducted using Acetic acid induced writhing test, formalin induced paw licking, tail immersion, eddy’s hot plate method and the anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by using carrageenan induced hind paw edema models. All studies were carried out in mice by the ethanol extract of C. inophyllum at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight respectively.

Results: The results of the present investigation indicates that the ethanol extract of C. inophyllum displayed significant (P <.001) analgesic activity and showed maximum writhing inhibition (49.82%) at the dose of 200 mg/kg body weight compared to standard drug indomethacin (74.56%) in acetic acid induced writhing method. In the formalin induced paw licking method, C. inophyllum showed significant (P < .001) activity in both phases and the maximum inhibition was shown at the dose of 200 mg/kg body weight, 50.74% and 53.79% respectively at early and late phase. The leaf ethanol extract of C. inophyllum was highly significant (P < .001) and showed dose dependent reduction of pain in both tail immersion and eddy’s hot plate method and maximum inhibition was found (55.88% and 54.17%) at 1 hour compared to standard drug. In the anti-inflammatory assay, both doses of ethanol extract of C. inophyllum showed significant (P < .001) activity after 3 hours of administration of plant extract against Carrageenan induced hind paw edema.

Conclusion: The investigated study concludes that C. inophyllum leaf extract has anti-inflammatory, central as well as peripheral analgesic effects which supports a significant scope to develop its medicinal practice.