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Analgesic and Antioxidant Activities of Stem Bark Extract and Fractions of Petersianthus macrocarpus

1, 1★, 2★ Corresponding author

  1. 1Departments of Pharmacognosy
  2. 2Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

CORRESPONDENCE

Sunday Adeleke Adesegun

Departments of Pharmacognosy

sadesegun@unilag.edu.ng

Volume 8, Issue 3 · pp. 181-185 · 2016 · DOI: 10.4103/0974-8490.182912

ABSTRACT

Petersianthus macrocarpus (Lecythidaceae) is widely used in the folk medicine in Nigeria to relieve pain and fever associated with malaria. This study evaluated the analgesic and antioxidant activities of the methanol extract and fractions of the stem bark of the plant. The analgesic activity was determined in mice using hotplate and acetic acid-induced writhing models. Morphine sulphate (5 mg/kg, i.p.) and aspirin (100 mg/ml, p.o.) were used as reference analgesic agents. The antioxidant potential was evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical; reducing power, iron chelating properties and determination of total phenolic content. The extract at 200 and 500 mg/kg, produced an insignificant (P > 0.05) increase in pain threshold in hotplate but a significant (P < 0.05) increase at 1000 mg/kg. The extract significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the writhing induced by acetic acid in mice in a dose dependent manner. Fractionation increased the analgesic activities significantly (P < 0.05) in ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions (200 mg/kg). The extract demonstrated strong DPPH radical scavenging activity with IC50 0.05 mg/ml, good reducing power and weak iron chelating activities. The total phenol content was 142.32 mg/gin term of gallic acid. The antioxidant effects were more pronounced in ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions. The findings of the study suggested that the extract has strong analgesic and antioxidant activities which reside mainly in the polar fractions thus confirming the traditional use of the plant to alleviate pains.

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    Orabueze, C. I., Adesegun, S. A., & Coker, H. A. (2016). Analgesic and Antioxidant Activities of Stem Bark Extract and Fractions of Petersianthus macrocarpus. Pharmacognosy Research, 8(3), 181-185. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.182912

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    © 2016 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