Formulation Development and Evaluation of Anti-inflammatory Potential of Cordia obliqua Topical Gel on Animal Model

Background: The plants of genus Cordia has been used in traditional medicine for many diseases from history. Cordia obliqua Willd. is also a medicinally important plant and it has been proved by modern scientific research. Objective: This study is aimed to formulate and characterize a topical gel from Cordia obliqua leaf methanol extract and evaluate its effect on carrageenan induced rat paw edema. Materials and Methods: The methanol extract was prepared by successive solvent extraction using soxhlet apparatus. Topical gel was designed to prepare by Dispersion method using Carbopol 940 as polymer. The various gel characteristics was studied by standard procedures like Homogeneity, grittiness, extrudability, drug content, spread ability and in-vitro diffusion study. The anti-inflammatory potential of gel was evaluated by Carrageenan induced rat paw edema method in comparison with standard Diclofenac Sodium gel 1% on Albino rats. Results: The herbal gel was found homogeneous with good extrudability, no grittiness, pH 6.79 and drug content 93.167%. The anti-inflammatory activity of herbal gel was found comparable with standard Diclofenac Sodium gel and has shown 82.71% edema inhibition after 4 h of treatment. Conclusion: Cordia obliqua gel was found suitable as a standard topical gel formulation and it can be used safely for treatment of edema.