IN VITRO ANTI INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CENTELLA ASIATICA BY HRBC MEMBRANE STABILISATION

Abstract

Centella asiatica is a valuable medicinal herbaceous aromatic creeper which has been valued for centuries in ayurvedic medicine. Phytochemical analysis of Centella asiatica plant extracts revealed the presence of various biochemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, triterpenoids and saponins etc. Since triterpenoids and flavonoids have remarkable anti inflammatory activity, so our present work aims at evaluating the in vitro anti inflammatory activity of Centella asiatica by HRBC membrane stabilization. The inhibition of hypotonicity induced HRBC membrane lysis was taken as a measure of the anti inflammatory activity. The percentage of membrane stabilisation for methanolic extracts and Diclofenac sodium were done at different concentrations. The maximum membrane stabilization of C. asiatica extracts was found to be 94.97 % at a dose of 2000 µg/ml. Therefore, our studies support the isolation and the use of active constituents from Centella asiatica in treating inflammations.