Anti-inflammatory activity of aqueous extracts of Ove Costa Rican medicinalplants in 8prague-Dawley rats

Abstract

The anti-inflamrnatory properties of Loasa specic¡sa and Loasa triphylla (Loasaceae), Urtica leptuphylla and Urera baccifera (Urticaceae), and Chaptalia nutans (Astemceae) were studied using the carregeenan induced mt paw edema model. Aqueous extmcts of each plant were made according to the ethnoboranical use. The hippocratic assay was made with female mts; the dose used was 500 mglkg i.p. andthe control group received 0.5 mi of n.s.s .. A11 the lmimals treated showed hipothermia, and those treated with the extmcts of Chaptalia nutans, Urera baccifera and Urtica lept/lPhylla showed an increased colinergic activity. Acute toxicities of !he aqueous extmcts were studied in mice an tbe mean lethal doses ranged between 1.0226 and 1.2022 glkg. The extracts of Urera baccifera, Chaptalia nutans, Loasa speciosa and Loasa triphylla (500 mglkg i.p.) showed an antiinflarnmatory activity compamble with that of indomethacin. The extracts of U. baccifera and C. nutans, which showed the gI"tatest anti-inflamrtJatory activity, did not show it when used orally (500 mg/k:g p.o.).