Attenuation of nociceptive pain and inflammatory disorders by total steroid and terpenoid fraction of Euphorbia tirucalli Linn root in experimental in vitro and in vivo model

Abstract

The plant Euphorbia tirucalli Linn has been successfully used as a tribal folk medicine in India and Africa for the management of acute inflammatory, arthritic, nociceptive pain and asthmatic symptoms. The present study was conducted to assess the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-asthmatic and anti-arthritic role of the total steroid and terpenoid rich fractions of the hydro-alcoholic extract of E. tirucalli root (STF-HAETR). STF-HAETR fraction demonstrated 71.25 ± 2.5 and 74.25 ± 5.1% protection against acetic acid-induced pain and central neuropathic pain at 75 and 100 mg/kg doses, respectively. It showed 96.97% protection against acute inflammation at 100 mg/kg with 1.6-fold better activity than the standard drug. The fraction exhibited such efficacy via inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IFN-γ, by 61.12 and 65.18%, respectively, at 100 μg/mL. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase and Nitric oxide synthase in a dose-dependent manner affirms its analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity. The spectrophotometric analysis reveals that STF-HAETR induces ameliorative effect against heat-induced denaturation of Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and exhibits significant anti-proteinase activity. The plant fraction also demonstrated anti-asthmatic activity by displaying 62.45% protection against histamine induced bronchoconstriction or dyspnoea. Our findings suggest that STF-HAETR could be an effective safe therapeutic agent to treat nociceptive pain, acute inflammation, asthma, and arthritis which may authenticate its traditional use.

Euphorbia bicolor (Euphorbiaceae) Latex Phytochemicals Induce Long-Lasting Non-Opioid Peripheral Analgesia in a Rat Model of Inflammatory Pain

“…Recent reports provide evidence that reactive oxygen species can increase pain processing via TRPV1 (Yoshida et al, 2006; Ibi et al, 2008). It is likely that E. bicolor latex extract is reducing inflammatory mediators and oxidative stress, based on data from other Euphorbia species (Upadhyay et al, 2014; Majid et al, 2015; Palit et al, 2018; Sdayria et al, 2018) as a mechanism underlying the analgesia observed in the present study. This hypothesis is currently under investigation.…”

“…A number of studies have reported the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of different Euphorbia species (Prabha et al, 2008; Gaur et al, 2009; Upadhyay et al, 2014; Majid et al, 2015; Palit et al, 2018; Sdayria et al, 2018). However, no studies have reported the analgesic properties and phytochemical analysis of E. bicolor latex extract.…”

“…Several Euphorbia species contain biologically active phytochemicals with medicinal properties (Shi et al, 2008; Vasas and Hohmann, 2014). In addition to E. resinifera , analgesic and/or anti-inflammatory activities have been reported in the stem extract of E. antiquorum (Hoang et al, 2008), hydro-alcoholic extract of E. tirucalli root (Palit et al, 2018), different solvent extractions of E. dracunculoides (Majid et al, 2015), and several other species (Prabha et al, 2008; Gaur et al, 2009; Upadhyay et al, 2014; Sdayria et al, 2018).…”

Euphorbia-Derived Natural Products with Potential for Use in Health Maintenance

“…A steroid and terpenoid-rich fractions were isolated from the hydroethanolic extract of E. tirucalli root that, at 60 mg/kg, exhibits better protection against peripheral nociceptive pain on acetic acid induced abdominal constrictions mice model than the analgesic aceclofenac sodium and better anti-inflammatory activity in carrageenan-induced mice model than indomethacin [110].…”

Chenopodium album L. and Sisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.: Phytochemical Content and In Vitro Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Potential

“…The anti-arthritic potential of C. album and S. officinale extracts and fractions was evaluated by means of the in vitro protein denaturation assay reported by Palit and colleagues [39] with some modifications.…”