Anti-inflammatory and Hepatoprotective Potentials of Methanol Leaf Extract of Arachis hypogea

The anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective properties of methanol extract of Arachis hypogea leaves were studied. At 400 mg/kg, the extract significantly suppressed the development of hind paw oedema induced by egg albumin, which compares favorably with a standard anti–inflammatory drug aspirin (acetylsalicylate) which at 100 mg/kg inhibits egg-albumin induced rat paw oedema. It was observed that the extract significantly inhibited platelet aggregation in a dose dependent fashion. At 0.6 and 0.7 mg/ml the percentage inhibition of platelet aggregation was observed to be 53.13 and 68.75% which compare closely to the standard drug indomethacin at 0.2 and 0.4 mg/ml which was found to be 53.13 and 65.63% respectively. Similarly, there was also an observable decrease in the activity of prostaglandin synthase which was dosage dependent at 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/ml, the percentage enzyme activity was 65, 70 and 95% respectively. Also, at 1 and 4 mg/ml of indomethacin, the percentage enzyme activity was 94.75 and 99.25% respectively. There was non-significant difference (P<0.05) in the selected liver function parameters assayed in all the groups after 21 days of administration. The study shows that the extract may contain anti-inflammatory agents with hepatoprotective properties and may yet serve as template for the development of more synthetic anti-inflammatory agents of clinical significance.