Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of ethanolic extract of aerial parts of Vernonia patula(Dryand.)Merr.

Objective:To investigate the inflammatory and antioxidant activities of ethanolie extract of aerial part of Vernonia patula(Dryand.)Merr(EAV).Methods:The anti-inflammatory activity of EAV was studied using carrageenan and histamine-induced rat paw edema test at different doses(100.200 and 400 mg/kg body weight).DPPH free radical scavenging,nitric oxide scavenging,reducing power and Fe^(2+)ion chelating ability were used for determining antioxidant activities.Results:The EAV,at the dose of 400 mg/kg,showed a significant anti-inflammatory activity(P<0.01)both in the carrageenan and histamine-induced oedema test models in rats,showing62.86%and 64.42%reduction in the paw volume comparable to that produced by the standard drug indomethacin(67.26%and 66.01%)at 5 h respectively.In DPPH free radical scavenging test,IC_(50)value for EAV was found fairly significant 36.59μg/mL when compared to the IC_(50)value of the reference standards ascorbic acid 8.97μg/mL.The IC_(50)values of the extract and ascorbic acid were 47.72 and 12.39μg/mL,respectively in nitric oxide scavenging assay.The IC_(50)value of the EAV(33.59μg/mL)as percentage of Fe^(2+)ion chelating ability was also found significant compared to that of EDTA(9.16μg/mL).The maximum absorbance for reducing power assay was found to be1.928 at 100μg/mL when compared to 2.449 for standard ascorbic acid.The total phenolic content was 198.81 mg/g of gallic acid equivalent.Acute toxicity test showed that the plant might be safe for pharmacological uses up to a dose level of 3200 mg/kg of body weight in rats.Conclusions:Therefore,the obtained results suggest the acute anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of the EAV and thus provide the scientific basis for the traditional uses of this plant part as a remedy for inflammations.