Background: The flower of Hagenia abyssinica (Rosaceae) has been used in traditional health systems to treat diabetes mellitus in Ethiopia and Tanzania. However, the antidiabetic activity of this medicinal plant is not scientifically validated and authenticated. The present study aimed to investigate the in vitro and in vivo anti-diabetic activity of flower crude extract and solvent fractions of Hagenia abyssinica. Methods: The in vitro α-amylase inhibition and antioxidant activity of the crude extract and solvent fractions of Hagenia abyssinica were evaluated by using 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA) and diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay model, respectively. Blood glucose lowering activity of 80% methanolic flower crude extract and solvent fraction was studied in four animal models: normoglycemic mice model, oral glucose loaded mice model, single dose-treated streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice model, and repeated dose-treated streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice model. The effect of the crude extract and solvent fraction of Hagenia abyssinica on diabetic lipid profile and body weight was also studied. Results: The acute toxicity study of Hagenia abyssinica flower extract did not show mortality in the animals at the limit dose of 2g/kg during the observation period. The result of α-amylase enzyme inhibition activity was found in a dose-dependent manner, the strongest activity was shown by ethyl acetate fraction (54.23% inhibition at 800 μg/mL) compared to the standard acarbose having 91.87% inhibition at 800 μg/mL. Among these extracts, the crude extract had the highest antioxidant activity (58.38% inhibition at 500 μg/mL). The crude extract of H. abyssinica showed significant blood glucose-lowering effect on normoglycemic mice and oral glucose loaded mice. In streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice model, the crude extract and ethyl acetate fraction significantly decreased the fasting blood glucose level after 14 days of treatment. There were significant reductions in serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, very low-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein. However, there were significant increments in body weight and high-density lipoprotein as compared to untreated diabetic mice. Conclusion: The result demonstrated the beneficial biochemical effects of Hagenia abyssinica extract by inhibiting α-amylase, scavenging diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and improving serum lipid profile levels. The flower crude extract and solvent fractions of Hagenia abyssinica are effective in lowering blood glucose levels in diabetic and normoglycemic mice. The claimed traditional use as antidiabetic has scientific ground.

The leaf of Osyris quadripartita is traditionally used for the management of diarrhea in different parts of Ethiopia. However, its use has not been scientifically validated for its efficacy. The aim of this study was to investigate antidiarrheal activity of hydroalcoholic leaf extract of O. quadripartita in mice models. Different doses of the methanolic leaf extract of O. quadripartita (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) were tested for antidiarrheal activity using castor oil–induced diarrhea, enteropooling, and gastrointestinal motility models in Swiss Albino mice. The activities of the extract at different doses were compared with standard drugs and negative control groups of mice. The extract at all tested doses resulted in significant reduction ( P < .01) in number of wet feces, whereas significant reduction ( P < .01) in frequency of defecation in castor oil–induced diarrhea was seen at a dose of 400 mg/kg. It also showed a dose-dependent and significant reduction of volume of intestinal content in the enteropooling model at all tested doses and the observed results in 200 and 400 mg/kg were better than the standard drug, loperamide. However, significant antimotility effect was not observed at any of the tested doses. From these results we can conclude that methanolic leaf extract of O. quadripartita showed antidiarrheal activity.

Background Medicinal plants play an important role in treating various diseases. Vernonia auriculifera Hiern is one of the medicinal plants used traditionally for the management of wounds. However, there were no scientific reports documented so far on the wound healing activities to substantiate the claim. Thus, the present study provides a scientific evaluation for the wound healing potential of the crude extract as well as solvent fractions of the leaves of Vernonia auriculifera Hiern. Methods Extraction was carried out by maceration using 80% methanol and part of the crude extract fractionated with chloroform, ethyl acetate, and aqueous solvents. Simple ointment bases were prepared using hard paraffin, cetostearyl alcohol, white soft paraffin and wool fat according to British Pharmacopoeia. Then, two types of ointment formulations were prepared from the extract, ie, 5% w/w and 10% w/w. Mice and rats were employed for wound healing study and dermal toxicity test, respectively. Wound healing effects were evaluated by percent of wound contraction, period of epithelialization, tensile strength, and histological analysis as parameters in excision, incision, and burn wound models. Finally, the data were expressed as mean ± SEM, and the results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey-test. Results In the excision wound model, the 10% w/w crude extract ointment showed significant wound contraction ( P < 0.001) from day 4 to day 18 as compared to the negative control. Both the 5% w/w ( P < 0.001) and 10% w/w ( P < 0.05) crude extract ointments have showed statistically significant difference in epithelialization period as compared to the negative control. Groups treated with the ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions ointments in incision wound model showed a statistically significant ( P < 0.001) increase in tensile. The 10% w/w and 5% w/w ointments of the crude extract showed a significant ( P < 0.001) increase in breaking strength compared to simple ointment and the untreated control groups. In burn wound model, significant reduction in epithelialization period was observed in 5% w/w ( P < 0.05) and 10% w/w ( P < 0.001), and the percentage of wound contraction was significantly increased in most of post wounding days by 10% w/w ( P < 0.001) and 5% w/w ( P < 0.05) crude extract ointments and compared to the negative control. Conclusion The crude, aqueous, and ethyl acetate fraction of Vernonia auriculifera leaves possess wound healing activities. This finding justifies the use of the leaves of this plant for wound healing as claimed in the traditional medicine literature.

Background. Treatment of malaria has been compromised by the emergence of drug-resistant parasites. Consequently, novel agents are urgently needed from different sources including from medicinal plants. Thus, the current study aimed at evaluating the antimalarial activity of crude extract and solvent fractions of the leaves of Bersama abyssinica (B. abyssinica) against Plasmodium berghei infection in Swiss Albino mice. Method. A 4-day suppressive test was employed to evaluate the antimalarial effect of crude extract and solvent fractions against early infection. The curative and prophylactic effects of crude extract and fraction with the highest chemosuppression were further tested by Rane’s test and residual infection procedure. Parasitemia, survival time, packed cell volume (PCV), body weight, and rectal temperature of mice were used as evaluation parameters. Windows SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data and analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post hoc test was used to compare data between groups. Results. The crude extract and aqueous fraction significantly (P<0.05 to 0.001) suppressed parasitemia followed by protection of PCV reduction resulting in prolonging the survival time but failed to protect body weight and rectal temperature reduction in all tested models. The ethyl acetate and chloroform fractions also showed significant chemosuppression and PCV protection in the 4-day suppressive test. The crude extract exhibited a chemosuppression of 49.51%, 57.94%, and 44.11% while the aqueous fraction showed suppression of 47.69%, 51.62%, and 37.07% in 4-day suppressive, curative, and prophylactic tests, respectively, at 400 mg/kg. Conclusion. The crude extract and fractions showed fairly moderate antimalarial activity, and the finding supports the traditional claims and previous in vitro studies. Thus, this may call for further studies to isolate chemical entities for additional safety and efficacy tests.

Background: Regardless of the availability of drugs many people still experienced pain and inflammation because current medications often trigger potentially serious adverse effects. A range of medicinal plants with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties have been widely used by traditional healers. Among them, Gomphocarpus purpurascens is one however there are no experimental studies that support this traditional use.Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of 80% methanolic leaf and root extracts of G. purpurascens. Methods: Air-dried leaves and roots of G. purpurascens were extracted with 80% methanol and an acute oral toxicity study was conducted for the 80% methanolic extract of G. purpurascens according to OECD guideline version eighteen. Preliminary phytochemical screening for the presence of different constituents was carried out. The hot plate method was used to evaluate centrally mediated analgesic activity while peripheral analgesic activity was tested by an acetic acid-induced writhing test. Carrageenan-induced paw edema test and formalin-induced pedal edema test were used to evaluate anti-inflammatory activity. Results: Dose-dependent inhibition of acetic acid-induced writhing test was observed in mice by 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, and 400 mg/ kg of root extract with respective values of 16.6%, 68.9%, and 83%. In the hot plate method, the root extract at doses of 200mg/kg and 400 mg/kg showed a significant (p < 0.05) analgesic effect. Maximum anti-inflammatory effects by all doses of leaf extracts were observed from 2-4hr post-induction in carrageenan-induced paw edema; and all tested doses of the extract inhibited the formalininduced inflammation significantly (p < 0.001, p < 0.01). The presence of saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, anthraquinone, steroids, and phenols might be responsible for these activities. Conclusion:This study shows that the extract had potential analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity which supports the traditional claim.