ABSTRACT
Background: Pain is a very well-known symptom of many diseases and analgesics are used to relieve pain. The main problem with these drugs remains that of side effects. Herbal medicines are better in view of their cultural acceptability, better compatibility with human body systems and lesser incidence of side effects. Extract of Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) plant have been traditionally used to treat pain in traditional medicine.Methods: Commercially available preparation of T. cordifolia plant has been used as test drug (aqueous extract). Healthy albino rats of either sex, weighing between 140-200 g were selected for the study, divided into 4 groups of 6 each (control, standard, 100 mg/kg, 300 mg/kg). Central analgesic activity was assessed by tail flick model (morphine as standard drug I.P). Acetic acid 1% 10 ml/kg aqueous solution I.P. was used for abdominal writhing model. Diclofenac 150 mg/kg oral as standard drug for assessment of peripheral analgesic activity. Results were analysed using SPSS version 16 and Microsoft office excel 2007.Results: T. cordifolia extract significantly increased the tail flick latency time (sec) (mean tail flick latency control, T100, T300 6.833±0.25 sec, 8.65±017 sec, 10.01±0.14 respectively) (p value control vs T100, T300 at 90 min, 120 min, 0.0573, 0.0198, 0.0198 in between group) and decreased number of abdominal writhing in comparison with the control group (p value <0.0001).Conclusions: Extract of T. cordifolia was found to possess analgesic activity and also exhibited dose and time dependant increase involving central and peripheral mechanisms. The analgesic activity of T. cordifolia found to be comparable to standard drug used.