EVALUATION OF ANTI ARTHRITIC ACTIVITY OF THE ROOT EXTRACT OF ACALYPHA INDICA LINN. USING IN VITRO TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Acalypha indica L., belonging to family Euphorbiaceae, is an herb used in traditional medicine for thetreatment of bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, rheumatism, earache, syphilitic ulcers, bacterial and renaldiseases. Acalypha indica crude root powder was extracted with solvents of increasing polarity viz.petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol successively by continuous hot percolation method.
Acalypha indica methanol extract was evaluated using three different in vitro models to explore antiarthritic
potential such as inhibition of protein denaturation, proteinase inhibitory action and antihyaluronidase
activity. The concentrations of 10 to 200 g/ml of Acalypha indica methanol extractwere prepared using DMSO. Diclofenac was used as the positive control. All in vitro determinationswere done in triplicate. A dose dependent increase in percentage inhibition was observed for all the
three models. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) was found to be 52 g/ml for protein denaturationassay, 37 g/ml in proteinase inhibitory action and 18 g/ml for anti-hyaluronidase activity.Diclofenac offered protective activity at even much lower concentrations compared to Acalypha
indica methanol extract producing IC50 values of 40 and 13 g/ml for protein denaturation andproteinase inhibitory assays. Acalypha indica exhibited a very good anti-arthritic activity in all themethods checked confirming its traditional use. Further in vivo studies are to be carried out to
confirm their activity and explore the mechanism by which this plant acts in protecting fromautoimmune disease and rationalize their use.