PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTINOCICEPTIVE ACTIVITY OF MIMOSA DIPLOTRICHA LEAVES

Though possessing a lot of ethnopharmacological use, Mimosa diplotricha did not explore thoroughly for its bioactivity & the phytoconstituents responsible for its bioactivity. The purpose of the current work was to conduct phytochemical screening and antinociceptive activity of methanolic extract and its different fractions of Mimosa diplotricha leaves. Phytochemical screening of methanolic extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, saponins, glycosides, phytosterols, phenols, flavonoids, proteins and lipids in Mimosa diplotricha leaves. The antinociceptive activity was assessed by using acetic acid induced writhing method and tail immersion method at two different doses using Swiss-albino mice as an animal model. In the mice model the methanolic extract and its n-hexane fraction showed Significant peripheral-antinociceptive activity at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight with percentage of inhibition of acetic acid-induced writhing 56.25% (P<0.001) and 51.62% (P<0.001) respectively compared to the standard diclofenac sodium (62.50%, P<0.001) group. The antinociceptive effect of methanolic extract and its n-hexane fraction of Mimosa diplotricha at the 400 mg/kg and 200mg/kg dose level was also found to be significant (P<0.001 with 59.35% and 58.94% elongation of reaction time respectively) at 60 minutes in the tail immersion model compared to the standard morphine (64.17%, P<0.001) group. By these results, we believe that it would be worthwhile expanding these studies to include the potential source in the treatment of pain.