Rheumatoid arthritis is a major ailment among rheumatic disorders. It is a chronic condition with multiple causation and affects the people in their most active period of life. The production of auto antigens in certain arthritic diseases may be due to in vivo denaturation of proteins 1 and The mechanism of denaturation probably involves alteration in electrostatic, hydrogen, hydrophobic and disulphide bonding 3. So, by controlling the production of auto antigen and inhibiting denaturation of protein and membrane lysis in rheumatic disease leads to anti-arthritic activity. Hence, inhibition of protein denaturation and membrane lysis were taken as a measure of the in vitro anti-arthritic activity. A larger number of herbal extracts are in vogue for the treatment of various types of arthritis.

Bacopa monniera also referred to as Bacopa monnieri, Herpestis monniera, water hyssop, and "Brahmi," has been used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for centuries. Phytochemical analysis of B. monniera plant extracts revealed the presence of various biochemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides,bacosides, triterpenoids and saponins etc. Since triterpenoids and flavonoids have remarkable anti inflammatory activity, so our present work aims at evaluating the in vitro anti inflammatory activity of B. monniera by HRBC membrane stabilization. The inhibition of hypotonicity induced HRBC membrane lysis was taken as a measure of the anti inflammatory activity. The percentage of membrane stabilisation for methanolic extracts and Diclofenac sodium were done at different concentrations. The maximum percentage of membrane stabilization and hemolysis of B. monniera extracts were found to be 92.92±1.41% and 7.08±1.17% at a dose of 2000 ìg/ml respectively, when compared to standard Diclofenac sodium was found out to be 98.76±1.26% and 1.24±0.87% at a dose of 2000 µg/ml respectively .Therefore, our studies support the isolation and the use of active constituents from B. monniera in treating inflammations.