DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i08.015

Pages: 3021-3025

The practices of using medicinal plants incorporated ancient beliefs and were passed on from one generation to another. Although effective in the treatment of various ailments, very often these drugs are unscientifically exploited and/or improperly used. This study aimed to evaluate the analgesic property of the aqueous extract of the leaves of Ligustrum robustum. The aqueous extract of Ligustrum robustum was obtained by the methods of Rao SK and Mishra SH (1997) and Khosla P et al., (2000) with slight modifications. Healthy albino mice weighing between 25-30gm were obtained for the study. The animals were divided into five groups with six animals in each group. The analgesic activity of the aqueous extract of Ligustrum robustum was tested on albino mice by the following methods: a) Acetic acid induced writhing method in mice as described by Witkin LB et al., 1961. b) Tail flick test in albino rats as described by Sheth UK et al., 1972. The results were compared with those of control, test & standard drugs for statistical significance by one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s‘t’ test. The test drug (Ligustrum robustum) in concentrations of 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg produced 6.42% (p>0.05), 22.1% (p<0.05) and 34.03% (p<0.001) protection from writhing respectively. In the tail flick, the test drug (Ligustrum robustum) in concentrations of 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg increased the pain threshold significantly (p<0.05 to 0.01) after 30min, 1hr, 2hr and 3hr of administration. Aqueous Ligustrum robustum increased the pain threshold significantly on acetic acid induced writhing model, also showed to possess significant analgesic activity in the tail flick method by analgesiometer using albino mice.