Phytochemical investigation and anti-inflammatory property of ethanol-water extract of the roots of Anthocleista djalonensis A. Chev. (Loganiaceae)

Abstract

Anthocleista djalonensis A. Chev.(Loganiaceae) is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases. The plant is known for its antipyretic, stomachic, analgesic and purgative actions. The aqueous ethanol extract of the root is used traditionally for the treatment of inflammatory disorders. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the plant root material gave positive result for tannins, saponins, and carbohydrate. The pulverized root material was extracted with aqueous ethanol (50%) and the crude product was investigated for anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan induced paw oedema model.1 The crude aqueous ethanol extract was further partioned into three different fractions (chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol). Purification of the butanol fraction on column chromatography eluting with chloroform-methanol (95:5) yielded a viscous light brown liquid which was identified as sweroside after spectroscopic analysis (1H and 13C NMR) and comparison with literature data.2 The anti-inflammatory activity of the isolated sweroside was also carried out. The crude product showed 60.5% inhibition of rat paw edema at the dose of 400 mg/kg, and 37% at 200 mg/kg. The pure compound produced 73.4% inhibition of rat paw edema at 100 mg/kg while indomethacin (positive control) at 10 mg/kg showed 74.5% inhibition under the same experimental condition. The use of the root extract of A. djalonensis in the treatment of inflammatory disorders in ethnomedicine is to a reasonable extent validated by this study.