PHARMACOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF MARKETED POLYHERBAL FORMULATION

Abstract

Introduction: - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs – skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs and muscles. But principally attacks the joints, producing a non-supportive proliferative sinusitis that often progresses to destruction of the articular cartilage and ankylosis of the joints. Rhumapar tablet is a marketed polyherbal formulation believed to have the potential for providing relief to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Objective: - Investigations have been carried out using rats as experimental models, to assess the anti inflammatory and anti arthritic potential of Rhumapar tablet. In-vitro anti-oxidant study has been carried out using different in-vitro models.

Result:- The results obtained demonstrate that Rhumapar tablet can significantly and dose-dependently inhibit carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema (the inhibition at 3 hour was greater than at 1 hour after induction of oedema).Tablet can also significantly inhibit granuloma formation in cotton pellet induced granuloma model. It also showed significant anti-arthritic activity in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) induced arthritis. The responses were statistically significant when they were compared with the control.

Conclusion: - It has been indicated that formulation possesses anti- inflammatory and anti-arthritic activities that are probably mediated through inhibition of prostanoid synthesis and free radical scavenging effect.

Keywords: Rhumapar tablet, Rheumatoid arthritis, Anti-inflammatory activity, Anti-arthritic activity, Anti-oxidant activity.