Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part A (2024)

Inflammation and associated diseases, like gout and rheumatoid arthritis, is a health challenge that has caused a decline in work force globally. Synthetic drugs obtainable over-the-counter and by prescription, used in mitigating inflammatory pains cause unwanted side effects that limit their use. Increasing knowledge of large number of natural plants with antiinflammatory potential and their screening may provide data that justify their use as alternative to synthetic agents. This work, therefore was designed to conduct an in vitro evaluation of antiinflammatory potential of ethanol leaf extracts of six ethnomedicinal plants from Nigeria. This was done by employing three assay techniques, viz: inhibition of protein denaturation, inhibition of proteinase activity and inhibition of lipoxygenase activity. The results show that the extracts of the plants, in relation to the control, produced significant (p<0.05) inhibition, with OGE, GLE and PGE exhibiting highest percent inhibition of protein denaturation (57.00%), proteinase activity (55.88%) and lipoxygenase activity (45.95%) respectively. The results also show that inhibition produced by GLE on protein denaturation and proteinase activity is not significant (i.e. p>0.05) with respect to standard drug (indomethacin). This study therefore concludes that the plants possess antiinflammatory potential that may be of future use, if properly developed, in the management inflammation and associated conditions.