No abstract

Clerodendrum capitatum (Willd) Schumach and Thonn. (Verbenaceae) is a perennial herb, which grows up to 0.5 m to 2 m high. It is widespread over North-East, East, and South Central Africa. It is known as “bambaro or maashayi” by the Hausas of Northern Nigeria. The leaves are used traditionally to treat intercostal pain, headaches and toothaches. The aim of this study is to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the aqueous ethanol extract and fractions of C. capitatum. The anti-inflammatory activity was investigated using carrageenan induced rat paw oedema model, while acetic acid induced mice writhing model was used to evaluate the anti-nociceptive property. The oral median lethal dose values were found to be greater than 5,000 mg/kg for the aqueous ethanol extract, ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions, while that of dichloromethane fraction was less than 2000 mg/kg using OECD method. The acetic acid induced writhing was significantly (P<0.05-0.001) reduced particularly for the EF and NF fractions at 200 mg/kg (93.12% and 98.79%). DF showed percentage inhibition of 87.59% and 81.75% at 50 and 100 mg/kg respectively. The extracts and fractions also caused a significant (P<0.05-0.001) dose dependent reduction of inflammation induced by carrageenan when compared with the negative control with the maximum inhibitory effect of 43.69% observed in Ethyl acetate fraction at 50 mg/kg dose at the 3rd hour. It can be concluded that the leaf extracts of C. capitatum possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in animal models, which may be mediated through the phytochemical constituents present in the extract and fractions of the plant. Keywords: Clerodendrum capitatum; Anti-inflammatory; Analgesic; OECD

Commiphora africana is a famous medicinal plant used traditionally in the treatment of various ailments such as inflammation, stomach disorders, diabetes, malaria, tumours, skin infections and as antidotes for venomous bites and stings in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. The present study aims to evaluate the molecular and chemical properties that could be of value in the standardization and quality assessment of the medicinal values of C. africana. The randomly amplified polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acidpolymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) analysis was carried out on the leaf sample. The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was carried out on the leaf and barks of stem and root extracts. The RAPD-PCR amplified products generated fingerprint patterns ranging from 250 to 1600 base pairs. The oligoprimers (A, B and E) produced distinct banding patterns for C. africana, the number of well-defined and major bands for a single primer ranged from 2 to 7 with maximum number of well-defined bands observed with primer "a" (7 bands) and the minimum number with primer "e" (2 bands). The HPLC chromatograms of the extracts of leaf and barks of stem and root of C. africana showed some similarities and differences in the type, number and concentration of the compounds in the various morphological parts of the plant. The DNA and HPLC fingerprints obtained from this research can be useful in the identification and authentication of C. Africana and thus may be useful in the standardization of this plant.