Total steroid and terpenoid enriched fraction from Euphorbia neriifolia Linn offers protection against nociceptive-pain, inflammation, and in vitro arthritis model: An insight of mechanistic study

- Total steroid and terpenoid rich fraction was separated from crude hydro-ethanolic extracts of Euphorbia neriifolia Linn stem (STF-HAENS) to investigate the pharmacological activity in pain, inflammation and arthritis model.
- STF-HAENS exhibited 68.58 ± 2.5% and 75.25 ± 5.1% protection against acetic acid induced pain and central neuropathic pain at 80 mg/kg.
- Demonstrated 98.47% protection against acute-inflammation at 100 mg/kg with 1.7 fold better activities than the standard drug (indomethacin).
- Showed protective effect against heat induced denaturation of BSA protein and exhibition of significant anti-proteinase and membrane stabilisation activity to reveal the in vitro anti-arthritic effect.
- Downregulated proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-6 and nitric-oxide production followed by dual inhibition of COX and LOX to explore the anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive pain activity.

The plant Euphorbia neriifolia Linn has been successfully used for the management of acute inflammatory, arthritic, nociceptive pain and relieves the asthmatic symptom as a tribal folk medicine in India. The present study was conducted to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-arthritic activity from total steroid and terpenoid rich fractions derived from hydro-alcoholic extract of Euphorbia neriifolia stem (STF-HAENS). STF-HAENS fraction demonstrated 68.58 ± 2.5% and 75.25 ± 5.1% protection against acetic acid-induced pain and central neuropathic pain at 80 mg/kg. It also showed 98.47% protection against acute inflammation at 100 mg/kg with 1.7 fold higher protective activity than the standard drug. The fraction exhibited this efficacy via inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-12 and IL-6 by 74%, 81.26%, 92.10% and 93.4% respectively at 100 μg/ml. It also showed dual inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipooxygenase (LOX) activity in a dose-dependent manner that elicited the desired pharmacological action. The fraction downregulated nitric-oxide production from lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated PBMC derived macrophages. The spectrophotometric analysis reveals the STF-HAENS induced ameliorative effect against heat-induced denaturation of BSA protein and exhibited significant antiproteinase activity. Our findings suggest that STF-HAENS could be used as an effective safe therapeutic agent for treatment of nociceptive pain, acute inflammation and arthritis.