| dc.description.abstract | Cantharanthus roseus is one of the commonest medicinal plants used by locals all over the world and has been attributed to be of health importance. It originates from central Madagascar Island; its use has been recorded as far as 50 BC. C. roseus is used for the treatment of different health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, diarrhea, and others. The reliance on expensive synthetic drugs for pain management presents challenges in terms of affordability and accessibility, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Synthetic drugs have been widely employed in pain management. Despite being effective in alleviating pain, they frequently have a number of side effects and risks that can be detrimental to patients’ health and well- being. The use of synthetic drugs may have drawbacks and risks, such as potential addiction to substances such as opiates, overdose complications, potential interactions with other medications leading to adverse effects or reduced effectiveness. To address this problem, the research aims to explore the analgesic potential of C. roseus as a natural plant with the goal of developing new cost-effective natural drugs that serve as an alternative to expensive synthetic drugs. In this present study, we investigated the analgesic activity of aqueous and ethanolic extract of Cantharanthus roseus in Balb/C mice. This was done using the acetic acid-induced writhing test. Acetic acid was used to induce analgesia leading to the writhing syndrome in the mice by liberation of endogenous substances that excite the pain nerve endings. C. roseus ethanolic and aqueous extracts (200 and 400 mg/kg) caused statistically significant inhibition of writhing syndrome in the mice with (P< 0.001 ANOVA). This effect was comparable with the observed effect of Paracetamol (10 mg/kg) which was used as a standard drug. The analgesic activity of both of the extracts revealed a dose-dependent inhibition of the writhing syndrome and this can be attributed to the presence of the phytochemical components. As the preliminary phytochemical screening of both extracts revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, saponnins, and phenols, the extracts’ potential activity may be attributed to the presence of these phytochemicals. The overall results indicated that C. roseus possesses significant analgesic activity and can be used as herbal remedy and alternative for treating pain. | en_US |
