Lokesh K. Bhardwaj, Kalpana S. Patil, M.Kaushik, Amit Sahu, Y.Prakash,V.K.Verma
In view of the well-established anti-inflammatory properties of bark and leaf of Ficus benghalensis, the present study was carried out to evaluate the protective effect of ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts against Freund?s adjuvant induced arthritis in rats. The ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts was administered orally at dose of 300 mg/kg body weight for 21 days. Indomethacin at dose of 10 mg/kg body weight was used as standard drug. The paw volume was measured on days 4, 8, 14, and 21. At the end of day 21 the blood was collected from retro-orbital route to all the groups of animals and various haematological parameters such as haemoglobin content, total WBC, RBC and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were estimated. The results indicate that at dose of 300 mg/kg body weight, both the extracts protects rats against the primary and secondary arthritic lesions, body weight changes and haematological perturbations induced by CFA. Daily treatment of rats with ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts, standard drug Indomethacin effectively inhibits paw edema in rats. Both the extracts significantly (p< 0.01) altered the parameters which were estimated when compared to control group rats. At the end of studies the ethanol extract shows more pronounce effect 66.88% than the aqueous extract 63.82% as compared to standard drug Indomethacin 75.42%. The phytochemical analysis of extracts revels the presence of sterols, flavonoids, phenols, tannins and saponins. However additional clinical investigations are needed to prove the efficacy of Ficus benghalensis L.in the treatment of various immuno-inflammatory disorders.
