Abstract

Albizia chinensis Osbeck. Merr. (Family: Fabaceae) is quite abundant in Bangladesh. The plant has a history of its traditional use in scorpion and snake bite. This investigation was designed to analyze the analgesic, anti-diarrheal and anti-inflammatory potentials along with sleep inducing property of the crude methanol extract of stem bark of Albizia chinensis Osbeck. Merr. Peripheral analgesic activity was evaluated by inducing pain through intraperitoneal administration of acetic acid in writhing test. Tail-flick test protocol was followed to determine central analgesic activity. The tail flicking response to thermal stimulus was measured in this assay. A. chinensis extract was also tested for anti-diarrheal activity by inducing castor oil-induced diarrhea in Swiss albino mice model. Phenobarbitone-sodium induced sleeping time was determined to assess CNS depressant activity. The crude methanol extract (400 mg/kg body weight) demonstrated 85.71% inhibition of writhing as compared to 74.49% by diclofenac sodium. The crude extract (400 mg/kg dose) reduced diarrheal feces by 69.05% and revealed 53.03% elongation of the reaction time after 30 min of administration in tail flick test. At the same dose, the crude methanol extract exhibited 91.49% inhibition of rat paw edema at the 4th h of carrageenan injection. The phytocomponents responsible for observed activity should be isolated and involved in further assessment.

Key words: Albizia chinensis, analgesic, writhing, anti-diarrheal, anti-inflammatory, carrageenan, edema.

Abbreviation

CNS, Central nervous system; ICDDRB, International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh.