Abstract

Aim: The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-arthritic activity of Ficus benghalensis root extracts on Freund’s adjuvant induced arthritis in rats. Method: The crude root extracts was administered orally at does of 300mg/kg body weight for 28 days. Indomethacin at does of 10mg/kg body weight was used as standard drug. The paw volume was measured on days 7, 14, 21 and 28. At the end of day 28th the animals were anaesthetized with anesthetic ether and blood was collected from retro-orbital route to all the groups of animals and various haematological parameters such as hemoglobin content, total WBC, RBC and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were estimated. The body weight of the animals was measured by digital balance to access the course of the disease at the initial day before induction and the end of 28th day. Results: The results indicate that all the extracts at the does of 300mg/kg b.w. protect the rats against primary and secondary arthritic lesions, body weight changes and haematological perturbations induced by FCA. Daily treatment with crude extracts and standard drug effectively inhibits paw edema in rats. All the extracts significantly (p<0.01) altered the parameters which were estimated, when compared to control group rats. The observations showed that, ethanol and chloroform extract inhibits rat paw edema by 63.64% and 61.69% when compared to standard drug 62.34% on 28th day. Conclusion: At the end of study the ethanol and chloroform extract show more pronounce effect then aqueous and pt-ether extract when compared to standard drug. Our findings showed a significant anti-arthritic activity of Ficus benghalensis root extracts against FCA induced arthritis in rats.

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