Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activity of ferula hermonis root oil in experimental animals

Abstract

Ferula hermonis (Apiaceae) is a well known Middle-Eastern medicinal plant. It has long been used traditionally as an aphrodisiac agent. The antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of the root oil of F. hermonis were evaluated by the hot-plate test, the acetic acid-induced writhing test and the carragennan-induced rat paw edema test. In the hot-plate test, the root oil in oral doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg significantly increased the reaction time of animals to thermal pain, and in the acetic acid-induced writhing test, in similar oral doses it showed a considerable inhibition of acetic acid-induced writhing in mice in a dose-dependant manner. In the carrageenan induced paw oedema model, the oral administration of 50 and 100 mg/kg of F. hermonis root oil to adult Wister rats showed a statistically significant decrease in rat paw o induced by carrageenan 1 and 2 h after carrageenan injection.