Potential analgesic and cytotoxic activities of the plant Typhonium trilobatum

Abstract

Typhonium trilobatum, a plant of Araceae family, containing many important chemical compounds was studied for its analgesic activity in three experimental models of nociception. The analgesic activity of crude chloroform extract of root, shoot and leaf, and the petrolium ether fraction of leaf, were evaluated by using acetic acid induced writhing method; formalin induced licking method and hot plate test on Swiss albino mice at doses of 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg body weight. In addition, cytotoxic activity of leaf, tuber and pet ether fraction was examined with brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The plant extract demonstrated a significant inhibition of writhing, licking and heat tolerance compared with the control group. The leaf extract showed 52.00% and 66.55%; tuber extract showed 38.57% and 53.78%, and the pet ether fraction of leaf showed 31.55% and 50.67% of inhibition of writhing during acetic acid induced writhing test at 200 mg/kg/dose and a bit of higher percentage of inhibition at 400 mg/kg/dose respectively. In addition, the percentages of inhibition were 35.67% and 41.67% for leaf extract for hot plate test at these dose levels. In case of formalin induced licking test, both the two group of mice showed more than 90% of inhibition of licking. Overall, the percentages of inhibition were 67.55%, 53.78% and 50.67% for the leaf, tuber and pet ether fraction of leaf. Morphine 5 mg/kg/dose was used as positive control and exhibited 76.0% inhibition compare to control. On the other hand, all the type of three different extracts showed the presence of cytotoxity over the brine shrimp, where vincristine sulfate was used as positive control. These results define that the extract possesses significant analgesic and cytotoxic activities that support to the ethnopharmacological uses of this plant. Hence, the obtained results in this project work provide a support for the use of this plant for medicinal purposes and encourage further investigation for more fruitful results.