PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, ACUTE TOXICITY AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECT OF CHRYSOPHYLLUM WELWITSCHII (ENGL.) LEAF EXTRACT IN RAT

Agnero Sié Melchor*, Yéo Dodehe, Ouattara Karamoko, Yapi Houphouet F., N’guessan Jean D., Djaman Allico Joseph

ABSTRACT

The aqueous and alcoholic extracts contained flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, sterols and terpenes, anthocyanins, saponins and cardiotonic glycosides. The water extract from the leaves of Chrysophyllum welwitschii (CHRYSOW) was evaluated for its acute toxicity in female rats. For the study of acute toxicity, oral doses of 300, 2000 and 5000 mg/kg of body weight was administered orally in rats. The results showed no signs of toxicity such as general behavior change; no morbidity and mortality. Both extracts of CHRYSOW were hardly toxic and their LD50 was higher than 5000mg/kg bw. The aqueous and ethanolic extracts of dried leaves of Chrysophyllum welwitschii Engl. was tested for anti-inflammatory action by carrageenan induced paw edema. The anti-inflammatory degree observed with aqueous extract revealed a higher anti-inflammatory activity than ethanolic extract. The aqueous extract in doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg of body weight showed 43.94 and 56.31% inhibition of paw edema, respectively at the end of 5 hours. The dose of 500 mg/kg of body weight was compared to that of standard dichlofenac sodium (56.92%). The anti-inflammatory activity may be due to presence of saponins, sterols and flavonoids in leaf extract.

Keywords: Chrysophyllum welwitschii, Extracts, Anti-inflammatory effect, Acute toxicity, LD50.