ORIGINAL ARTICLE e-ISSN: 2349-0659 p-ISSN; 2350-0964 Protective Efects of Lantana camara (aculeata) in Rheumatoid arthritis using in vitro and in vivo Complete Freund’s Adjuvant induced arthritis in rats Rupali Dhikale 1 *, Vishal Gulecha 2 , Amar Zalte 3 A BSTRACT The main objective of the present work is to evaluate the potential of Lantana camara (aculeata) for anti-arthritic activity using in vitro and in vivo study. L. camara is an important medicinal, ornamental, and essential oil-producing herb from family Verbenaceae. Diferent parts of L. camara have been used for the treatment of various human ailments such as itches, cuts, ulcers, swellings, bilious fever, eczema, tetanus, malaria, tumor, rheumatism, and headache. The anti-arthritic activities of pet ether, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and aqueous extracts of L. camara were initially evaluated using in vitro model of arthritis. The ethanolic and aqueous extracts were found to be better among all the extract in in vitro study and hence subjected for further in vivo anti-arthritic study using complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) model in rats for 28 days. Both the extracts at 200 and 400 mg/kg were evaluated in rats for diferent parameters. The paw volume displacement, changes in body weight, arthritic index, alteration in serum biomarker, alteration in hematological parameters, secondary lesions changes as noticed from the radiograph, and histopathology study were measured as a mark of antiarthritic activity. The results indicate that L. camara protects rats remarkably against the primary and secondary arthritic lesions, body weight changes, serum biomarker changes, radiological, histopathological, and hematological perturbations induced by CFA in dose-dependent manner. However, the efect of the ethanolic extract at the dose of 400 mg/kg was more signifcant, superior, and pronounced than aqueous extract and also it is comparable to the standard drug. Keywords: CFA, Histopathology, Lantana camara (aculeata), Radiology, Rheumatoid arthritis Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., (2022); DOI: 10.21276/apjhs.2022.9.4.25 ©2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. I NTRODUCTION Lantana is the genus of the family Verbenaceae with 150 species. Lantana is mostly native to subtropical and tropical America, but a few taxa are indigenous to tropical Asia and Africa. [1] The plant Lantana camara (aculeata) Linn. Family-Verbanaceae is commonly known as wild sage or red sage and lantana weed. [2] L. camara (aculeata) is an important medicinal plant with several medicinal uses in traditional medication system. It is been used to cure many health problems in diferent parts of the World. Leaves are used to treat cuts, rheumatisms, ulcers, catarrhal infection, tetanus, rheumatism, malaria, cancer, chicken pox, asthma, ulcer, swelling, eczema, tumor, high blood pressure, bilious fever, ataxia of abdominal viscera, sores, measles, fevers, cold, and high blood pressure. [3-5] It contains major phytochemical constituents such as Mono and sesquiterpenes, triterpenes, furanonaphthaloquinones, and favonoids. [6] The word arthritis means infammation of the joint (“artho” meaning joint and “itis” meaning infammation). Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a ravaging infammatory and autoimmune illness that afects the joints, although its cause is still unknown. With RA, infammation manifests in the lining of the joints causing pain, swelling, joint damage, and deformity. It can occasionally involve other internal organs, such as the nerves, eyes, lungs, or heart. [7] RA is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease that arises more frequently in females than males, being predominantly observed in the elderly. The prevalence rate reported in 2002 ranged from 0.5% to 1% of the population and had regional variation. RA primarily afects the lining of the synovial joints and can cause progressive disability, premature death, and socioeconomic burdens. The clinical manifestations of symmetrical joint involvement include arthralgia, swelling, redness, and even 1 Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sandip University, Nashik, Maharashtra, India. 2 Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sandip University, Nashik, Maharashtra, India. 3 Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sandip University, Nashik, Maharashtra, India. Corresponding Author: Rupali Dhikale, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sandip University, Nashik, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: rupadhikale@gmail.com How to cite this article: Dhikale R, Gulecha V, Zalte A. Protective Efects of Lantana camara (aculeata) in Rheumatoid arthritis using in vitro and in vivo Complete Freund’s Adjuvant induced arthritis in rats. Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., 2022;9(4):123-5. Source of support: Nil Conficts of interest: None. Received: 14/02/2022 Revised: 18/03/2022 Accepted: 15/04/2022 limiting the range of motion. [8] Presently for the treatment of RA, strategies have changed from traditionally used nonsteroidal anti- infammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or disease modifying ant rheumatic drugs to novel biological agents such as TNF monoclonal antibody and fnally immunosuppressive or cytotoxic agents. [9-11] The above-mentioned therapeutic agents reduce the infammation and joint destruction but their long-term risks are still unknown. However, long-term risks of drugs include gastrointestinal ulcers, cardiovascular complications, hematologic toxicity, nephrotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity, myelosuppression, hepatic fbrosis, stomatitis, cirrhosis, diarrhea, immune reactions, and local injection-site reactions. Moreover, higher costs and side efects which include high risks of infections and malignancies require continuous