EVALUATION OF ANTI ARTHRITIC ACTIVITY OF THE ROOT EXTRACT OF ACALYPHA INDICA LINN. USING IN VITRO TECHNIQUES

Acalypha indica L., belonging to family Euphorbiaceae, is an herb used in traditional medicine for the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, rheumatism, earache, syphilitic ulcers, bacterial and renal diseases. Acalypha indica crude root powder was extracted with solvents of increasing polarity viz. petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol successively by continuous hot percolation method. Acalypha indica methanol extract was evaluated using three different in vitro models to explore antiarthritic potential such as inhibition of protein denaturation, proteinase inhibitory action and antihyaluronidase activity. The concentrations of 10 to 200 μg/ml of Acalypha indica methanol extract were prepared using DMSO. Diclofenac was used as the positive control. All in vitro determinations were done in triplicate. A dose dependent increase in percentage inhibition was observed for all the three models. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) was found to be 52 μg/ml for protein denaturation assay, 37 μg/ml in proteinase inhibitory action and 18 μg/ml for anti-hyaluronidase activity. Diclofenac offered protective activity at even much lower concentrations compared to Acalypha indica methanol extract producing IC50 values of 40 and 13 μg/ml for protein denaturation and proteinase inhibitory assays. Acalypha indica exhibited a very good anti-arthritic activity in all the methods checked confirming its traditional use. Further in vivo studies are to be carried out to confirm their activity and explore the mechanism by which this plant acts in protecting from autoimmune disease and rationalize their use.