Gege-Adebayo G.I, Bassi A.S., Igbokwe V.U., Shafe M.O.
Pyrexia or fever is a disease caused as a result of secondary impact of other diseased states due to t he resetting of the hypothalamic set-point. From scien tific discovery, antipyretic drugs such as asipirin , NSAIDs, opiods have been developed for use and of w hich mostly produces side effects including gastrointestinal bleeding, renal, hepatic effect, e tc. Therefore, many herbal plants have been found t o be having antipyretic effects. Ocimum gratissimum is a shrub commonly found in Africa and has been used to treat bacterial fevers locally. This study investigates the antipyretic activity of the methan olic extract of Ocimum gratissimum on brewer’s yeast induced fever in experimental rat s. 30 albino rats weighing 150g-200g were used. They were divided in to six groups of five rats each. Group one serve as control (n=5) and was given 1ml of normal saline, g roup two (n=5) was treated with brewer yeast alone, group three(n=5) was given 100mg/kg of asipirin, wh ile groups four, five and five were treated with 300mg/kg,200mg/kg and 100mg/kg (n=5) of Ocimum gratissimum respectively. A suspension of brewer’s yeast was injected subcutaneously to induc e fever in all the experimental animals. After 18hr s, the rectal temperature was taken and the animals we re administered Ocimum gratissimum (100mg/kg.200mg/kg, 300mg/kg) and aspirin (standard group, 100mg/kg) orally. The body temperature of the rats was measured rectally over a period of 4hours. Ocimum gratissimum (100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 300mg/kg) significantly reduced yeast induced pyrexia, 36.88±0.39ºC, 36.43±0.26ºC and 35.83±0.46ºC when compared with the group two (20ml /kg, brewer’s yeast) temperature of 37.80±0.18ºC ( p<0.01, respectively). The group three (asipirin, 1 00mg/kg) also show significant reduction 36.55±0.22 , p<0.01compared with group two (20ml/kg, brewer yeas t) with temperature 37.80±0.18ºC. Thus, this experiment shows that the antipyretic effect of ocimum gratssimum is dose dependent and the effect is as a result of the flavonoid component of the ex tract. These data therefore suggest that methanolic extract of Ocimum gratissimum leaves possesses significant antipyretic activity and it mechanism could be by inhibition of/release inflammatory medi ators.
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