Topical Herbal Gel: Preparation and In Vivo Antiarthritic Activity Against Complete Freund's Adjuvant Induced Arthritis in Rats

摘要

For rheumatoid arthritis (RA) various opioid analgesics and nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs are used for the management of the chronic pain and inflammation. But almost all the drugs show gastric irritation and/or high dosage frequency. Therefore, a polyherbal gel was formulated as a safer and more effective alternative for the topical use for prolonged relief from pain and local inflammation in arthritis without any side effect. Polyherbal gels were prepared from the ethanolic extract of rhizomes of three Chinese herbs namely Aconiti Radix (Ranunculaceae), Fagopyrum cymosum Meisn (polygonaceae) and Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae) using carbopol-934 as base. The prepared gels were subjected to physical evaluation, in vivo primary skin irritation test, in vivo analgesic and in vivo anti-inflammatory activities against complete freund's adjuvant induced arthritis in rats. The prepared polyherbal gels showed good physical properties (like texture, appearance etc.) with pH 6.9 and 7.1; and viscosity of 12.5 and 15.4 cps. The polyherbal gels were found to be non-irritant to the skin in primary skin irritation test on Wistar rats. The polyherbal gels showed very good in vivo anti inflammatory activity (60.90 +/- 1.22 and 64.54 +/- 0.99% inhibition of paw edema for F1 and F2, respectively) and in vivo analgesic activity (51.25 and 58.75% analgesia for F1 and F2, respectively), which was comparable to that of indomethacin gel. It was concluded that the poly herbal gel prepared from the rhizomes of Aconitum carmichaelii, Fagopyrum cymosum and Zingiber officinale were very effective in the effective management of pain and inflammation induced by the rheumatoid arthritis.