Abstract

The aqueous extract of the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria annae was investigated for its anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic,analgesic and cholesterol regulating properties in different experimental standard animal models. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, indomethacin (10 mg/kg/body weight) was used as standard in the anti-inflammatory, and analgesic studies, while glibenclamide (600 µg/kg/b.wt.) was used as standard drug in the anti-diabetic study. The results reveal that O. annae possesses significant ameliorating effects in the studied animal models, including rats and mice. These effects were comparable to those obtained after treatment with the standard drugs used in this study. The results indicate that the cyanobacterial extract can act as natural remedy and also open a new avenue to identify the active ingredients behind these effects.

Key words: Oscillatoria annae, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, analgesic, cholesterol.