Fatimah Abdussalam Oluwakemi

Several African countries and its dwellers depend on traditional medicine for their health needs and medicinal plants are the main source of remedies for this therapy. These medicinal plants are used for the treatment of various disease conditions such as microbial infections, skin diseases, hypertension, pains, and inflammation. This study aims at investigating the anti-inflammatory activities of powdered extracts of Vernonia amygdalina (Va) and Laurus nobilis (Ln) using albino rats. The anti-inflammatory activities of these plants were determined using twenty albino rats divided into four groups of five albino rats each. Oedema was produced by injecting each albino rat with 0.2 ml of a solution of 1% egg albumin (EA) in the hind paw. Group I, the negative control was administered with egg albumin. Group II were treated with 10 mg/kg of ketoprofen (standard drug). Group III and IV were treated with 100 mg/kg of powdered extracts of Va and Ln respectively. Animals were observed for oedema inhibition by Ketoprofin, Va and Ln at 1, 2 and 3 hours post injection of EA. Findings from this study showed that Va and Ln contain phytochemicals such as alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, and phenols among others. Also, the result from the study showed that the powdered extracts of Va and Ln has high anti-inflammatory activities reducing oedema to 67% and 89.2% at 3 hrs post injection of EA compared to ketoprofen (33.9%) used in this study. Ln extract showed the most promising effect; as oedema was drastically reduced by 89.2% at 3 hrs post injection of EA. Hence, it was concluded that the powdered extracts of Vernonia amygdalina and Laurus nobilis can be effectively used as an alternative drug to treat inflammation. Key words: Vernonia amygdalina, Laurus nobilis, phytochemicals, ketoprofin 0150