Relative Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic Activities of the Whole Fruit, Fruit Bark, Pulp and Seed of Lagenaria breviflora Roberty

摘要

Ethanol extracts of seeds, pulp, bark or whole fruit of Lagenaria breviflora Roberty were investigated for their individual anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. These extracts were evaluated using formalin-induced paw lick in Wistar rats, acetic acid-induced writhing, hot plate and tail flick tests in mice. Each experiment consisted of thirty animals randomly, but equally divided into six groups of 100, 200, 400 or 800 mg kg~(-1) b.wt. of extract pre-treated, indomethacin (10 mg kg~(-1) b.wt.) pre-treated and a control group administered with distilled water (10 mL kg~(-1) b.wt.). Values were expressed as Mean+-Standard Error of Mean (SEM). The data were analyzed using one way ANOVA and difference of means were considered significant at p<0.05. The different extracts showed varying degrees of same pattern of anti-inflammatory or analgesic effect on the rats or mice. Itching of the paws persisted significantly longer in control or indomethacin treated-rats than in seed, pulp, bark or whole fruit extract treated-rats for both phases of formalin-induced paw licks. All the extracts effectively reduced abdominal writhing but not as effective as indomethacin. The extract treated rats tolerated thermal induced pain longer than the control or indomethacin treated rats, with very significant difference for the bark and the whole fruit groups. All the fruit parts exhibited significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. The bark extract was the most potent extract of the three component parts of the fruit, followed by the pulp and then seed extracts. The bark exhibited the strongest bioactivity and invariably may contain the largest concentration of the bioactive anti-inflammatory/analgesic compound(s) in the fruit of Lagenaria breviflora.