Journal of Ethnopharmacology 88 (2003) 51–56 Free radical scavenging activity of the alcoholic extract of Trewia polycarpa roots in arthritic rats D. Chamundeeswari a , J. Vasantha a , S. Gopalakrishnan b , E. Sukumar c,∗ a College of Pharmacy, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (Deemed University), Porur, Chennai 600 116, India b College of Pharmacy, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Coimbatore 641 044, India c Central Research Institute for Siddha (CCRAS), Arumbakkam, Chennai 600 106, India Received 8 March 2002; received in revised form 7 April 2003; accepted 17 April 2003 Abstract The alcoholic extract of Trewia polycarpa roots (TPE), which exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity, was evaluated for the possible mode of action by studying its antioxidant potential in adjuvant-induced arthritic rats. The biological defence system constituting the superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, ascorbic acid showed a significant increase while the lipid peroxide content was found to decrease to a large extent on TPE treatment thereby indicating the extracts free radical scavenging property. Histopathological studies too supported anti-arthritic potential of the roots of Trewia polycarpa. © 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Trewia polycarpa roots; Free radical scavenging activity; Arthritic rats 1. Introduction The roots of the plant Trewia polycarpa Benth. (Euphor- biaceae) are used in the Ayurvedic medicine under the name ‘Gambhari Prathinidhi’ in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis and gastritis (Sharma, 1998). Earlier studies on the ethanolic extract of the roots (TPE) revealed a significant anti-inflammatory activity in albino rats (Chamundeeswari, 2001). The present investigation was undertaken to study the free radical scavenging potential of TPE in arthritic rats. The Indian genus Trewia has two species, Trewia nudiflora Linn. and Trewia polycarpa Benth. While studies on the chemistry and biological activities on the former has been dealt with in detail (Mukherjee and Chatterjee, 1966; Powell et al., 1982; Darise, 1992; Powell et al., 1983; Saha et al., 1981; Powell et al., 1981; Yue et al., 1991), so far no such work on the latter is reported in the literature. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Preparation of extract Trewia polycarpa roots [authenticated by Dr. V. Chelladurai, Research Officer, Survey of Medicinal ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-44-2-6214925; fax: +91-44-2-5220309. E-mail address: drsuku@yahoo.com (E. Sukumar). Plants Unit (CCRAS, Govt. of India), Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu] were collected from Thiruthuraipoondi (Naga- pattinam District, Tamil Nadu) in February 1998 and a voucher specimen (Pharma No. 02/98) has been re- tained in the herbarium of the College of Pharmacy, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai. Shade dried and coarsely powdered roots of Trewia polycarpa (2.5 kg) were extracted with 90% ethanol in an aspirator bottle at room temperature for 72 h. Nearly 80% of the solvent was removed by distillation over boil- ing water-bath at atmospheric pressure and the remain- ing under reduced pressure. This extract (TPE) (yield 1.75%) was suspended in 5% gum acacia and used for animal experiments. TPE when subjected to phytochemi- cal screening revealed the presence of terpenoids, steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, quinones and glycosides (Harborne, 1973). 2.2. Animal studies Female albino rats of Wistar strain (100–200 g) main- tained in the Animal House of Sri Ramachandra Medical College at room temperature (25 ± 2 ◦ C), relative humidity of 75 ± 5% and 12 h, dark–light cycle, were used for ex- periments. The rats were fed with commercial pelleted rat feed (M/s. Hindustan Lever, Mumbai) and water was given ad libitum. 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0378-8741(03)00143-0