Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Evaluation of Polyherbal Formulation of Nigella sativa (Seeds), Ocimum sanctum L. (Leaves) and Piper longum Linn. (Fruits)

Objective: In current scenario, one of the most important health problems in the world is inflammation. Most of antiinflammatory drugs have a number of adverse effects hence there is a need to develop safe and new anti-inflammatory drug/formulation with minimum side effects. This study is aimed to evaluate anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of polyherbal formulations prepared by the combination of Nigella sativa (seeds), Ocimum sanctum L. (leaves) and Piper longum Linn. (fruits) extracts.

Methods: Anti-inflammatory evaluation was performed on carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model along with evaluation of antioxidant activity (DPPH radical scavenging) and acute toxicity test of polyherbal formulations of hexane and ethanol extracts.

Results: Oral administration of both polyherbal formulation prepared by hexane and ethanol extracts at the highest dose of 3000 mg/Kg resulted in no mortalities and no evidence of significant behavioural changes. DPPH radical scavenging activity results showed that polyherbal formulation of ethanol extract(IC₅₀: 47.74 μg/ml) has lower antioxidant activity than standard ascorbic acid (IC₅₀:13.725 μg/ml) but exhibited higher antioxidant activity than polyherbal formulation of hexane extract (IC₅₀:74.27 μg/ml).Further, results showed that both polyherbal formulations of hexane and ethanol extracts were exhibited appreciable inhibition of edema size from 1, 3 and 5 hrs of study as compare to the standard drug indomethacin(10 mg/kg b.w). Polyherbal formulation of ethanol extract emerged as the most promising formulation in doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg that also displayed excellent protection against inflammation with percent protection of 43.24% and 56.20%, respectively. Whereas, polyherbal formulation of hexane extract showed considerable inhibition of the edema size in both doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg, also exhibited protection against inflammation with percent protection of 25.6% and 36.0%, respectively. However, the standard drug indomethacin showed highest inhibition of edema size and showed remarkable protection against inflammation with percent protection of 81.40%.

Conclusion: It can be inferred that the polyherbal formulation of ethanol extract displayed good antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory activity compared to polyherbal formulation of hexane extract. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potentials of polyherbal formulation of ethanol extract may be attributed to polyphenols and phytosterols present in it.