"~ Journal of ETHNO PHARMACOLOGY ELSEVIER Journal of Ethnopharmacology 54 (1996) I 6 Antiinflammatory effect of petroleum ether extract of leaves of Litchi chinensis Gaertn. (Sapindaceae) S.E. Besra, R.M. Sharma, A. Gomes* New Drug Development Dirision, Indian Institute O~ Chemical Biology, 4 Raja S.C. Mullick Road. Cah'utta-700032, India Received 13 March 1995; revised 1 April 1996: accepted 12 April 1996 Abstract Pharmacological studies were conducted with the petroleum ether extract of leaves of the plant Litchi chinensis Gaertn. (Sapindaceae) on experimental animals. The extract was found to possess antiinflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activity. Acute toxicity studies revealed that the extract, up to a dose of 1 g/kg intraperitoneally, was nontoxic. The extract did not inhibit arachidonic acid-induced paw inflammation thus indicating that it may inhibit the cyclooxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism. The extract also enhanced peritoneal cell exudate along with macrophage significantly. K<t,words: Litchi chinensis leaves; Antiinflammatory; Analgesic; Anti-pyretic 1. Introduction Litchi chinensis Gaertn. (Sapindaceae) is an ev- ergreen tree of 10-12 m height found in India (Shastri, 1962). The seeds of the tree were re- ported to possess some medicinal property (Gu- jral et al., 1955). In Indochina the seed was used in intestinal trouble and in Malaya it was used as anodyne and prescribed in neuralgic disorders and orchitis (Kirtikar and Basu, 1933). Virtually noth- ing is known about the medicinal use of any other part of the tree. Recently, it has been reported that 50% alcoholic extract of the parts of the plant excluding the root possessed no promising pharmacological effect (Bhakuni et al., 1971). In this investigation, we evaluated the petroleum ether extract of the leaves for possible antiinflam- matory0 analgesic and antipyretic activity. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Plant material * Corresponding author. The leaves of Litchi chinens& were collected by a local supplier from sites around Calcutta in 0378-8741/96;$15.00 C 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved PII S0378-8741 (96)01440-7