Abstract

Phytomedicines obtained from herbal sources are in great demand as they are able to cure many infectious diseases. Artemisia annua is an herbaceous plant that belongs to Composite family. As traditional medicine, it is used for cancer, ulcer, rheumatic pain and other ailments including fever in children. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antipyretic activities of the aqueous and ethanol extracts of leaves of A. annua in mice. Rectal temperatures were recorded before and after inducing pyrexia as well as after administration of the respective extracts every half an hour for three hours. Parallel experiments were conducted with the standard antipyretic (aspirin) and the negative control (distilled water). Both extracts showed significant antipyretic activity at the specified dose levels except for 100 mg/kg aqueous extract. The antipyretic activities for both extracts were found to be dose dependent. No significant potency difference was observed for aqueous and ethanol extracts though the effects of aqueous extract were not statistically significant to the end of the experiment.

 Key words: Antipyretic activity, Artemisia annua, extraction.