Abstract:
The purpose of physiological pain is protection. Pain is associated with high morbidity and socioeconomic burden.
Conventional medication of pain is expensive and arguably associated with various severe adverse effects hence
the need to develop herbal agents that are effective as alternative. This study was designed to evaluate the
antinociceptive of C. volkensii and M. obscura growing in Embu County, Kenya. Experimental animals were divided
into four groups; normal group, diseased negative control group, diseased reference group and diseased
experimental groups. Pain was induced into rats using formalin. The experimental groups were treated with leaf
extracts of the plants at dose levels of 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg. Anti-nociceptive activities in rats were
compared with diclofenac (15 mg/kg) as the standard conventional drug. In antinociceptive study, the leaf extract C.
volkensii reduced pain by between 6.82-15.24% only in the early phase while the leaf extracts of M. obscura
reduced pain by between 12.39-34.81% (in the early phase) and between 6.4-12.4% (in the late phase). Diclofenac
reduced pain by between 7.58-9.66% (in the early phase) and by 69.87% in the late phase. Further, the
phytochemical screening results showed that the extracts of C. volkensii had flavonoids, steroids and phenolics
while the leaf extracts M. obscura had phenolics, terpenoids and saponins. flavonoids. Therefore, the study has
established that the DCM: methanolic leaf extracts of Caesalpinia volkensii and Maytenus obscura are effective in
management of pain.
