Activity guided isolation and mechanistic approach towards analgesic potential of Chenopodium mediated through opioidergic pathway

Abstract

The current study is focused towards screening for its phytochemicals, phenolic and flavonoid contents of different species of Chenopodium. The plants were also screened for corroborating the traditional use of medicinal plants locally used for pain by determining the extract and their fractions for the in-vivo analgesic activity by using the modern scientific system. Among chloroform fractions, a high level of total phenolic contents was found in chloroform fraction of Chenopodium ambrosioides (ChAm-Chf) with 57.12±1.02 followed by Chenopodium botrys (ChBt-Chf) with 56.79±0.71. High content of flavonoids was found in chloroform fraction of Chenopodium botrys (ChBt-Chf) extract with 78.35±0.84 followed by Chenopodium ambrosioides (ChAm-Chf) with 75.20±0.81. The crude extract Chenopodium album, Chenopodium botrys and Chenopodium ambrosioides (ChAl-Crd, ChBt-Crd and ChAm-Crd) at 100 and 200 mg/kg, chloroform and ethylacetate fractions (ChAl-Chf, ChBt-Chf, ChAm-Chf, ChAl-Et, ChBt-Et and ChAm-Et) at 75 mg/kg caused significant inhibition (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.001, n=8) of the analgesic response induced by acetic acid, formalin and hotplate method. Mechanistically, the naloxone overturns completely the analgesic effects of beta-sitosterol (SN2) while partial reversal was observed by ursolic acid (SN1) indicating other possible mechanisms in association with opioid receptors