International Journal of
MediPharm Research

The genus, Cyathula comprises of about one hundred and six (106) species which are perennial herbs or under-shrubs. Cyathula prostrata (L.) Blume which belongs to the Amarantheceae family is commonly known as pasture weed, pigweed and small prickly chaff- flower and found growing in forests, plantations, waste areas and roadsides. Extracts of this plant are used in traditional medicine for the treatment of chest troubles, dysentery, diarrhea, craw-craw, scabies, sexual disease, tumours and inflammations amongst many others. The growing concerns associated with the incidence of reactive free-radicals widely implicated in inflammatory conditions prompted this present study. The crude extract, fractions and two previously isolated compounds (HOO-1and HOO-2) from the plant were screened for anti-inflammatory activities with the aim of confirming or disproving its uses in ethnomedicine. The xylene and chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) models were employed in the determinination of the anti-inflammatory activity. The xylene-model test for anti-inflammatory activity showed that the ethyl-acetate fraction and HOO-2 gave moderately similar anti-inflammatory activity of 53.48 % while HOO-1was comparably less active at 30.20 %. The chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) model also indicated that both the ethyl-acetate fraction and HOO-2 gave moderate anti-inflammatory activity of 52.00 % while HOO-1 was less active at 44.00 %. However, the other fractions were weakly active. These results obtained from this study were not surprising because the phytochemical screening of the extract indicated the presence of flavonoids and terpenes which have demonstrated anti-inflammatory activities in previous studies. Furthermore, the results show some consistency irrespective of the model used and do lent scientific justification to the folklore uses of the plant in treating and managing inflammatory conditions.

Keywords: Inflammations; xylene-model; chorio-allantoic membrane CAM); Cyathula prostrata; free-radicals.