Analgesic activity of hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of Colocasia esculenta

Abstract

Pain is a mixture of noxious stimuli with sensation. It is commonly observed to be associated with toothache, migraine, inflammation, infection, increased ocular pressure, burn, wound, reduced blood supply to heart, intestinal colic, renal colic, parturition, and various diseases like renal calculi, cancer etc. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and opioid analgesic are normally used in the treatment of pain but can cause a lot of adverse effect. Therefore herbal drugs can be potential source to replace them. Every year a lot of plants form traditional medicinal system has been screened for their potential analgesic activity but only few of them only included in health care system after clinical research. Colocasia esculenta is important medicinal plant in India and it is used in various treatment of disease. In this paper, The analgesic activity of Hydroalcoholic extract of Colocasia esculenta was evaluated through hot plate and tail flick models. In this studythe animals were treated with Colocasia esculenta (200mg/kg & 400mg/kg),and standard Diclofenac sodium (5mg/kg). The Hydroalcoholic extract of Colocasia esculenta of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg exhibited significant analgesic activity in the hot plate method (p<0.01) by increasing the pain reaction time (PAT) of the rats to sec 34.24±3.015**and 37.28±3.006** respectively at 90 min after treatment in comparison to control (40.26±5.055). In tail Flick Method Hydroalcoholic extract of Colocasia esculenta of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg exhibited significant analgesic activity (p<0.001) by increasing the pain reaction time (PAT) of the rats to sec 4.30±0.025*and 6.13±0.031** respectively at 90 min after treatment in comparison to control (4.26±0.055) The results of the study concluded the Colocasia esculenta plant exhibits analgesic activity and further studies of Colocasia esculenta plant were suggested to isolate the active principles responsible for the analgesic activity.