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Anti-inflammatory Activity of Ixora coccinea Methanolic Leaf Extract

1★, 1, 2, 3★ Corresponding author

  1. 1Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  2. 2Department of Chemistry,Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  3. 3Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

CORRESPONDENCE

S. M. Handunnetti

Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

shiromah@ibmbb.cmb.ac.lk

Received: 20-01-2009; Accepted: 11-02-2009.

Volume 1, Issue 2 · pp. 80-90 · 2009 · DOI:

ABSTRACT

The anti-inflammatory activity of methanolic leaf extract (MLE) of Ixora coccinea Linn. (Rubiaceae) was investigated in this study. MLE showed dose-dependent anti-inflammatory activity in carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model (r = 0.7; P<0.01). MLE at a dose of 500, 1000, and 1500 mg/kg showed maximum inhibition of edema 36.7, 46.5, and 64.5% respectively (P<0.01). Oral administration of MLE of rats at a dose of 1500 mg/kg significantly inhibited peritoneal phagocytic cell infiltration (45.9%; P<0.05), impaired nitric oxide (NO) production in peritoneal cells (40.8%; P<0.01) and showed anti- histamine activity (54.9%; P<0.01). In vitro treatment of rat peritoneal cells with MLE inhibited NO production dose- dependently (82.2% at 400 dg/ml, r = 0.99; P<0.05). MLE also possessed significant, dose-dependent in vitro anti-oxidant activity (r = 0.88; P<0.01; IC50 value = 8.0 g/ml), membrane stabilizing activity (r = 0.81; P<0.01; IC50 value = 6.4 ng/ml) and lipid peroxidation activity (36.7% at 250 lg/ml; P<0.01). Thirty-day oral treatment of rats with 1500 mg/kg did not show any adverse signs of toxicity or behavioral changes. These results suggest that anti-inflammatory activity of I. coccinea is mediated via inhibition NO production, phagocytic cell infiltration, anti-histamine effect, scavenging of free radicals, membrane stabilizing activity and lipid peroxidation.

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    Handunnetti, S. M., Kumara, R. R., Deraniyagala, S. A., & Ratnasooriya, W. D. (2009). Anti-inflammatory Activity of Ixora coccinea Methanolic Leaf Extract. Pharmacognosy Research, 1(2), 80-90.

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    © 2009 Author(s)

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0