Analgesic Properties of Euphorbia prostrata Crude Extracts

Abstract

Pain is a symptom that results from particular physiological processes as injurious stimuli characteristic of cell injury or disease. The use of plants as medicine for relieving pain has been reported in several studies where extracts have shown significant analgesic activity. This study was conducted to determine the analgesic efficacy of ethyl acetate and hexane crude extract from Euphorbia prostrata. The phytochemical screening of hexane and ethyl acetate was done. The study also evaluated the analgesic properties of hexane and ethyl acetate crude extracts from E. prostrata. Tail Immersion Model with albino rats was adopted for the investigation. Crude extracts at doses of 250, 500 and 1000mg/kg body weight were administered orally and their activity compared with diclofenac (positive control) and tween solution (negative control). Phytochemical screening showed that major phytochemical in E. prostrata plant had mid polar properties. Results for both the hexane and ethyl acetate crude extracts showed a significant increase in Pain Reaction Time (PRT) at the dose level of 1000 mg/kg. These results were statistically authentic as realized from minimal standard deviation of 0.158 and 0.058 for diclofenac and ethyl acetate extract respectively with a t-test value of 24.99at α = 0.005 level of significance. This confirmed the efficacy of both hexane and ethyl acetate extracts therefore inference that E. prostrata exhibits analgesic activity and is a potential lead candidate for drug discovery.