Chemical and Biological Evaluation of Spilanthes paniculata Linn.

The crude ethanolic extract of the leaves of Spilanthes paniculata (Linn.) was evaluated for analgesic and antioxidant activities in different methods. At the dose 500 mg/kg body weight, the extract showed significant analgesic activity in acetic acid induced writhing in mice showing 37.61% inhibition (P>0.001) comparable to that produced by Diclofenac Na (45.02%) used as standard drug. Four complementary test systems, namely DPPH free radical scavenging, reducing power, Fe++ ion chelating ability, total phenolic compounds were used for the analysis. In DPPH free radical scavenging test, IC50 value for ethanolic crude extract was found fairly significant (8.59 ± 0.082 μg/ml) while compared to the IC50 value of the reference standards ascorbic acid and BHA (1.93 ± 0.027 & 4.10 ± 0.035 μg/ml) respectively. In reducing power test the maximum absorbance for ethanolic crude extract was found to 2.152 ± 0.016 at 100 μg/ml while compared to 2.811 ± 0.013 and 2.031 ± 0.019 for standard ascorbic acid and BHA respectively.Therefore, the obtained results tend to suggest the analgesic and antioxidant activities of the crude ethanolic extract of the leaves of Spilanthes paniculata Linn.