Anti-inflammatory effects of crude methanolic extract and fractions of Alchornea cordifolia leaves.

The leaves of Alchornea cordifolia were collected, identified, dried, and reduced to coarse powder and extracted with aqueous methanol. Using various solvent treatments, the powdered dried leaf was fractionated into five fractions, A1, A2, B, C, D and E. The fractions were subjected to phytochemical analysis to identify the biologically active constituents. The anti-inflammatory effects of crude methanolic extract (ME) of Alchornea cordifolia leaves and the five fractions were evaluated using egg-albumen-induced rat hind paw oedema as a model of inflammation. The crude extract was also subjected to acute toxicity test. Fraction A2, which exhibited the most promising anti-inflammatory effect, was also subjected to analgesic and ulcerogenic tests. Phytochemical analysis of the extracts showed the presence of terpenes, sterols, flavonoids, tannins, carbohydrates, glycosides, saponins and traces of alkaloids. The LD(50) of the aqueous ME was found to be 1131.4 mg/kg. The crude ME (50 mg/kg) gave anti-inflammatory activity which was significant (P<0.05) at all the observation times (1-3h). The different solvent fractions exhibited varying degrees of anti-inflammatory activities, with terpenoid fraction (A2) and the tannin-containing multi-component fraction (D) showing very high and significant (P<0.01) activity at 100mg/kg, with percentage inhibition of oedema value of 87.69 each. In conclusion, the aqueous ME of Alchornea cordifolia leaves could be beneficial in the management of different inflammatory disease states. Its anti-inflammatory activity may not be attributed only to the terpenoid content.