Objective:
Utilization of herbal remedies rich in flavonoids a
nd vitamins have increased significantly these days
to treat various disorders, thus
existing research work encircled to appraise the an
algesic effect of
Nelumbo nucifera
fruit (NNF) for evaluating its traditional use phar
macologically
in disorders which are associated with pain and inf
lammation.
Methods:
Central analgesic activity in mice was assessed by
tail flick test and the latency time i.e. the remov
al of tail from the stimulus was
recorded. Similarly acetic acid induced writhing te
st was also conducted for the assessment of periphe
ral analgesic effect in mice and number of
writhes was counted along with percent inhibition o
f writhes.
Results:
In tail flick test the peek anti-nociceptive effect
at all doses of fruit was observed at 90 min. Howe
ver, the percentage of tail elongation time
was highest at a dose of 200 mg/kg i.e. 82% at 90 m
in. Number of writhes was highly significantly redu
ced at all doses of NNF but maximum effects
were observed at dose 200 mg/kg as compared to cont
rol, indicating 48.41 % inhibition of writhes.
Conclusion:
NNF have exhibited strong analgesic effect in both
animal models, which may be connected with the syne
rgistic actions of flavonoids,
saponins and tannins on arachidonic acid pathway in
hibition. Hence NNF seems to have a great potential
in
disorders associated with pain but more
experimental trials in this field are required to c
onfirm these findings.