Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of Strobilanthes kunthianus in experimental animal models

Background: Strobilanthes species is well known for their diverse biological activities including analgesic and anti-inflammatory. Strobilanthes kunthianus Nees T Anders (Neela kurinji) is a seasonal plant and grows at the Nilgris of India once in twelve years. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in-vivo analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of S. kunthianus using experimental animal models. Methods: A number of methods including paw edema induced by carrageenan, paw edema induced by formalin, and granuloma induced by cotton pellets were used to evaluate anti-inflammatory activity. Additionally, the hot plate and tail immersion test were used to evaluate the analgesic activity of crude methanol extracts of S. kunthianus flower, root, stem and leaves in different dose levels. Results: The treatment with crude methanol flower extract showed the maximum activity among the extracts tested in all the methods. However, Standard ibuprofen showed potent activity over the extracts. Based on these findings, crude methanol flower extract of S. kunthianus was selected for sub-chronic anti-inflammatory studies using cotton pellet method. The extract indicating its potency was found to be healthy. Conclusion: It could be seen that from this study that S. kunthianus may contain anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents which support its use in traditional medicine.