ABSTRACT
Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn (Nymphaeaceae), a perennial aquatic plant, has been used as a medicinal herb in China and India. It has been recorded in the most famous medicinal book in China for more than 400 years. Different part of plant (leaves, seeds, flower, and rhizome) can be used in traditional system of medicine. In traditional system of medicine, the different parts of plant is reported to possess beneficial effects as in for the treatment of pharyngopathy, pectoralgia, spermatorrhoea, leucoderma, smallpox, dysentery, cough, haematemesis, epistaxis, haemoptysis, haematuria, metrorrhagia, hyperlipidaemia, fever, cholera, hepatopathy and hyperdipsia. Following the traditional claims for the use of N.nucifera as cure of numerous diseases considerable efforts have been made by researchers to verify it’s utility through scientific pharmacological screenings. The pharmacological studies have shown that N.nucifera posseses various notable pharmacological activities like amti-ischemic, antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, antiobesity, lipolytic, hypocholestemic, antipyretic, hepatoprotective, hypoglycaemic, antidiarrhoeal, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and diuretic activities. A wide variety of phytoprinciples have been isolated from the plant. The present review is an effort to consolidate traditional, ethnobotanic, phytochemical and pharmacological information available on N.nucifera.
ABSTRACT
Anti-inflammatory activity of the ethanolic extract of the leaves of Colocasia esculenta Linn. was studied in wistar rats using the carrageenan induced left hind paw edema, carrageenan induced pleurisy and cotton pellet induced granuloma model. The ethanolic extract [100 mg/kg, p.o.] inhibited carrageenan induced rat paw edema. It also showed an inhibitory effect on leukocyte migration and a reduction on the pleural exudates as well as reduction on the granuloma weight in the cotton pellet granuloma method. The results indicated that the ethanolic extract produced significant [p<0.05] anti-inflammatory activity when compared with the standard and untreated control