Anti-inflammatory Effects of the Stem Barks from Albizia Ferruginea (Mimosaceae) on Chronic Inflammation Induced in Rats

Abstract

Albizia ferruginea is used in popular medicine for the treatment of inflammatory illnesses. The chronic anti-inflammatory effects of aqueous extract of A. ferruginea was assessed on the cotton pellet-induced granuloma, formalin and complete Freund's adjuvant-induced inflammation. The aqueous extract of A. ferruginea was administered orally at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg. It’s showed that A. ferruginea extract (100 or 200 mg/kg) significantly (p<0.001) inhibited the granuloma formation induced by cotton pellets by 41.70 % and 46.10 %, respectively. A. ferruginea extract, at the dose of 200 mg/kg inhibited (p<0.01) the paw œdema induced by formalin (25.79 %) and Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) in rats(47.40 %).A. ferruginea  extract(100 or 200 mg/kg) normalized the level of white blood cells, red blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets of rats treated with CFA. Glutathione and superoxide dismutase levels were significantly increase (92.59% and 60.51%, respectively), catalase activity was significantly increased (42.03%) in the tissue of CFA rats treated with A. ferruginea (200 mg/kg). Malondialdehyde level was reduced by 72.88% (p<0.01) in spleen of rats treated with A. ferruginea aqueous extract. The nitrite level was significantly decreased by 50.51% in liver of CFA rats treated with A. ferruginea (200 mg/kg). These results show that aqueous extract of A. ferruginea may possess anti-inflammatory effects on chronic inflammation, which could be partially attributed to its antioxidant properties.