Antipyretic activity of Polyalthia longifolia Benth. & Hook. F. var. pendula (Annonaceae), on lipopolysaccharide-induced fever in rats

Abstract

Fever is a complex physiological response triggered by infectious or aseptic stimuli. The present investigation was carried out to study the antipyretic activity of Polyalthia longifolia extracts in Wistar rats against Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced pyrexia. P. longifolia Benth. & Hook. f. var. Pendula (Annonaceae) is an evergreen tropical tree well known for its numerous medicinal proper-ties. Methanol extracts of the leaves, stem bark and root of the plant were tested for their antipyret-ic activities at doses of 30, 100 and 300 mg kg-1 body weight using LPS-induced antipyretic activity model. All extracts showed significant (p < 0.001) dose-dependent antipyretic activity. At 300 mg kg-1, all extracts exhibited activities higher than that of Acetylsalicyclic acid (Aspirin) whose per-centage inhibition of pyrexia was 86%. The root extract was the most active with a percentage inhi-bition of 127.5%, followed by the leaf extract (123.0%) and the stem bark extract (99.2%). This study proves P. longifolia as an effective antipyretic agent and could be used as an adjunct in the treat-ment of other ailments.