In vivo Comparative Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Activities of Root Bark, Stem and Leaf Extracts of Capparis erythrocarpus (Capparaceae)

Introduction: The root bark powder of the medicinal plant Capparis erythrocarpus is used at the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (In Ghana) against inflammatory pain disorders. The whole plant is destroyed to obtain the root bark which constitutes only 11.1 % of the plant. Hence, the plant is going extinct. We therefore sought to evaluate anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the root bark, stem and leaf of C. erythrocarpus in order to explore them as substitute(s) anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent to the root bark. Methods: Carrageenan induced paw oedema assay was used to evaluate anti-inflammatory activity. Hot plate and acetic acid induced writhing assays were employed to ascertain analgesic activity. Results: The extracts of the root bark (CRB) and leaf (CL) produced significant (p<0.05) antiinflammatory activity of 48.93 and 37.42 % at 50 and 200 mg/kg p.o. respectively whereas the stem extract (CS) was inactive. Moreover, the extracts produced significant (p<0.05) analgesic activity. The analgesic activity (178.20 – 248.70 %) of the extracts were higher than that of morphine (136.70%) at 5 mg/kg i.m. in the hot plate assay. CS (200 mg/kg p.o.) produced the highest analgesic activity (54.61%) among the extracts and diclofenac sodium (41.15%) at 5 mg/kg p.o. in the writhing assay. Conclusion: These results indicates that the leaf of C. erythrocarpus can be substituted for the root as analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent. Whiles, the stem can also be used as analgesic agent. This will save the plant from extinction.