Scientific Approaches in Screening the Analgesic property of Sida Cordata

Pain is likely the most common symptomatic complaint in medicine; an understanding of its mechanism is critical to interpret it. Nociception refers to the detection of noxious stimuli by nociceptors, followed by transduction and transmission of the sensory nervous information from the periphery to the brain. Plants have played a unique holistic role for the provision of food, drugs, clothing, shelter, etc. Natural compounds have been extensively explored for new drug discoveries. Indeed, plants have been used as medicines for more than 5000 years, as a source of antibiotics, antineoplastic, analgesics, cardioprotective, among others. About 70–90% of the population in developing countries continue to use ancient medicines based on plant extracts. Sida cordata popularly known as “bala” is regarded as a valuable drug in the Ayurvedic System of Indian Medicine. In order to validate the ethnomedical claim of Sida cordata as pain reliever, a study was conducted to evaluate the analgesic activity of ethanolic extract of Sida cordata whole plant in laboratory animals. For centrally mediated analgesic activity, eddy’s hot plate method was employed and Pentazocine was uses as reference control. For peripherally mediated analgesic activity, acetic acid induced writhing model was employed and Dicofenac was used as reference control. Sida cordata ethanolic extract was administered orally at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg. In eddy’s hot plate method, both the doses of Sida cordata significantly increased the reaction time compare to vehicle control. In acetic acid induced writhing test, both the doses of Sida cordata significantly reduced the number of writhing compare to vehicle control. In both the models, the effect produced by Sida cordata was comparable to that of respective reference control. The results obtained suggest that the ethanolic extract of Sida cordata has showed marked analgesic activity in experimental animal models and this strappingly supports the ethnopharmacological applications of the plant for the target activity.