Lawsonia inermis possesses a significant analgesic activity compared to Waltheria indica, Moringa oleifera, Nigella sativa, and diclofenac in female Wistar rats

Abstract

Pain is a severe symptom of many diseases, with an increasing percentage of people manifesting various types of pain. Medicinal plants provide analgesic potential with little toxicity. We performed this experiment to compare the analgesic activities of Lawsonia inermis, Waltheria indica, Moringa oleifera, and Nigella sativa in Wistar rats using writhing and paw lick responses. We grouped 21 adult female rats into seven groups (n=3), including uninduced and untreated rats (group 1), induced untreated rats (group 2), rats treated with Lawsonia inermis at 200 mg/kg (group 3), rats treated with Waltheria indica at 200 mg/kg (group 4), rats treated with Nigella sativa at 200 mg/kg (group 5), rats treated with Moringa oleifera at 200 mg/kg (group 6), and rats treated with diclofenac at 10 mg/kg (group 7). We dosed rats for 14 days after inducing the pain. Phytochemical screening showed that methanolic extracts of Lawsonia inermis, Moringa oleifera, and ethanolic extract of Waltheria indica contain: Alkaloid, saponin, steroid, tannin, flavonoid, phenols, terpene, and glycosides. The rate of weight gain in rats treated with M. oleifera and W. indica was 7%, and with diclofenac was 9% compared to the untreated control. L. inermis and N. sativa possessed a weight gain of 3% and 2%, respectively. All the extracts exhibited analgesic activities by significantly reducing the number of lick and writh in the order of Lawsonia inermis, Nigella sativa, Moringa oleifera, and Waltheria indica.This study concluded that Lawsonia inermis possess significant analgesic activities compared to other plants and the standard drug (diclofenac).

Keywords

• pain
• lawsonia inermis
• nigella sativa
• moringa oleifera
• waltheria indica
• analgesic