Abstract:

Inflammation is an immune response that could lead to serious health problems. Some steroids and nonsteroidal drugs are capable of relieving inflammatory reactions but may promote various detrimental side effects. Therefore, the search for effective but less side effects of natural antiinflammatory drugs are urgently needed. One of the medicinal plants that may have the potential as an anti-inflammatory is velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens L. (DC.)). This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of velvet bean leaf ethanolic extract against inflammation in mice as an animal model and to elucidate the phytochemical constituents of velvet bean leaf extract regarding their antiinflammatory properties by deploying gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GCMS) analysis. This study used 40 male BALB/c mice with 4 treatment groups, namely negative control (Na-CMC 1%), positive control (diclofenac sodium 4.5 mg/kg BW), velvet bean leaf extract 200 mg/kg BW, and 400 mg/kg BW, respectively. The extract or diclofenac sodium was given orally to the mice 30 minutes upon intraplantar injection of carrageenan 1%. Subsequently, the volume of paw edema, area under curve (AUC) values of edema, and percent of anti-inflammatory power as well as leukocyte counts were determined. The results demonstrated that ethanolic extract of velvet bean leaf, particularly at the dose of 400 mg/kg BW exerted a substantial anti-inflammatory effect against carrageenan as indicated by the lowest edema volume, lowest AUC value, the highest anti-inflammatory power, and stronger suppression on leukocyte counts. In addition, the GC-MS analysis revealed some potent anti-inflammatory compounds namely hexadecanoic acid, geranylgeraniol, geraniol, 3-aminobenzamide, octadecanoic acid, and 4-hydroxycinnamic acid.

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