Journal of Ethnopharmacology 125 (2009) 356–360 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Ethnopharmacology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm Anti-inflammatory activity of Albizia lebbeck Benth., an ethnomedicinal plant, in acute and chronic animal models of inflammation N. Prakash Babu, P. Pandikumar, S. Ignacimuthu ∗ Division of Ethnopharmacology, Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Nungambakkam, Chennai 600 034, Tamil Nadu, India article info Article history: Received 19 June 2007 Received in revised form 26 January 2009 Accepted 23 February 2009 Available online 9 March 2009 Keywords: Albizia lebbeck Anti-inflammatory activity Carrageenan Dextran Cotton pellet FCA abstract Aim of the study: Albizia lebbeck Benth. is used both in Indian traditional system and folk medicine to treat several inflammatory pathologies such as asthma, arthritis and burns. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the scientific basis of anti-inflammatory activity of different organic solvent extracts of Albizia lebbeck. Materials and methods: The anti-inflammatory activity of Albizia lebbeck was studied using the car- rageenan, dextran, cotton pellet and Freund’s complete adjuvant induced rat models. The extracts obtained using petroleum ether, chloroform and ethanol were administered at the concentrations of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight. Results: The petroleum ether and ethanol extracts at 400 mg/kg, showed maximum inhibition of inflammation induced by carrageenan (petroleum ether—48.6%; ethanol—59.57%), dextran (petroleum ether—45.99%; ethanol—52.93%), cotton pellet (petroleum ether—34.46%; ethanol—53.57%) and Freund’s adjuvant (petroleum ether—64.97%; ethanol—68.57%). Conclusion: The marked inhibitory effect on paw edema shows that Albizia lebbeck possesses remarkable anti-inflammatory activity, supporting the folkloric usage of the plant to treat various inflammatory diseases. © 2009 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. 1. Introduction Inflammation is a complex pathophysiological process medi- ated by a variety of signaling molecules produced by leucocytes, macrophages and mast cells as well as by the activation of com- plement factors that bring about edema formation as a result of extravasation of fluid and proteins and accumulation of leucocytes at the inflammatory site (White, 1999). All the steroidal and non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s), despite their great number, cause undesired and serious side effects. Therefore, devel- opment of new and more powerful drugs is still needed. Research on plants with medicinal properties and identification of the chemical components responsible for their activities have corroborated the traditional uses of ancient healing wisdom and lore and have proven the enduring healing potential of many plant medicines even in today’s hi-tech community. Albizia lebbeck Benth. (Mimosaceae), commonly known as Sirisa in Sanskrit, is a tall, unarmed, and deciduous tree distributed throughout India from the plains up to 900 m in the Himalayas. In Siddha system of medicine the bark and flowers of this plant are used to treat arthritis (Mudaliar, 1936). The tribal people in ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 2817 8348; fax: +91 44 2817 5566. E-mail address: entolc@hotmail.com (S. Ignacimuthu). Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir use this plant to treat inflammation (Srivastava et al., 1986; Jain, 1991; Kapur, 1993). Balasubramaniam (1992) reported that the tribals of point Calimere wild life sanctu- ary, Tamilnadu use this plant to treat bone fractures. In ayurvedic system of medicine, the stem bark of this plant is used to treat diarrhoea (Nadkarni, 1954), edema, poisoning, asthma and bron- chitis (Gupta, 2004). It was previously reported that the alcoholic extract of Albizia lebbeck protects the guinea pig against the antigen induced challenge (Tripathi et al., 1977; Barua et al., 1997). Fur- ther it also reduced the level of histamine and raised the plasma cortisol in antigen challenged guinea pigs (Tripathi and Shukla, 1979) as well as in bronchial asthma patients (Tripathi et al., 1978). Das et al. (2003) and Pramanik et al. (2005) previously reported the anti-inflammatory activity of the methanol extract of Albizia lebbeck bark. Many saponins such as Lebbekanin A–H (Varshney and Khan, 1961; Varshney and Sharma, 1969; Varshney et al., 1973, 1976) and Albizziasaponin A–C (Pal et al., 1995), which con- tain oleanolic acid, echinocystic acid or acacic acid as sapogenins were reported from various parts of this plant. Further, melanox- etin, okanin, (+) pinitol, (-)-leucopelargonidin (Gupta et al., 1966), friedelan-3-one, -sitosterol and macrocyclic spermine alkaloids namely budmunchiamines L1–L6 (Misra et al., 1995; Dixit and Misra, 1997) were also isolated from this plant. The anti-inflammatory agents exert their effect through a spec- trum of different modes of action (Martelli, 1977). Carrageenan 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2009 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.02.041