Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity of selected medicinal plants used in Indian traditional medication system in vitro as well as in vivo

The present study was carried out to evaluate <i>in vivo</i> and <i>in vitro</i> anti-inflammatory potential of selected medicinal plants used in Indian traditional medication. The sequentially extracted plant samples as, <i>Cissus quadrangularis</i>, <i>Plumbago zeylanica</i>, <i>Terminalia bellarica</i> and <i>Terminalia chebula</i> in water, ethanol and hexane were evaluated <i>in-vitro</i> for COX-1 and 2 inhibitory and antioxidant activities. The <i>in vivo</i> anti-inflammatory activity of selected samples showing promising COX-2 inhibition was assessed using carrageenan and Phorbol Myristate Acetate (PMA) induced mice edema animal model. The results obtained reveals that most of the plants were found to inhibit COX-2 activity as compared to COX-1. It was observed that the extracts of <i>T. bellarica</i> (73.34 %) and <i>T. chebula</i> (74.81 %) showed significant COX-2 selective inhibition as compared to other samples. The ethanol extract of the selected plants demonstrated effective DPPH, OH and superoxide radical scavenging activity. <i>In vivo</i> anti-inflammatory study shows that, <i>T. bellarica</i> and <i>T. chebulla</i> had a significant impact on inhibition of edema formation. The cytotoxicity evaluation study of ethanolic fraction of selected medicinal plants indicates that the selected samples have no effect on cell viability. HPTLC fingerprint of flavonoids of the selected samples was also prepared as a measure of quality control. The results obtained may be useful in strengthening the standardization of the selected botanicals. Moreover the selected plants can be considered as a resource for searching novel anti-inflammatory agents possessing COX-2 inhibition.