WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

N’dia Kouadio Frédéric*, Kouakou Kouakou Léandre, Kouamé Djè Kouamé Wenceslas and Yapo Angoué Paul

ABSTRACT

Pain is an unpleasant sensation and an emotional experience in response to real or partial tissue damage. Steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics used in modern medicine to relieve pain lead to gastrointestinal disorders, kidney and skin toxicities. Therefore, the search for new effective analgesic substances is necessary. The use of medicinal plants is becoming an important path to explore in order to discover drugs that induce fewer side effects. This study, conducted on Terminalia superba, a plant used in traditional medicine for the treatment of pain and various ailments in Côte d'Ivoire, aims to evaluate the analgesic potential of a total aqueous extract of Terminalia superba stem bark (ETATs). Mus musculus mice (20-30 g) and albino rats Rattus norvegicus, wistar strain (100-120 g), aged 8-12 weeks, were used for these tests. ETATs was prepared by infusion of 100 g of Terminalia superba stem bark powder in 1 L of distilled water at 100 °C for 15 min. The analgesic activity of ETATs was evaluated using experimental models of induction of peripheral pain (acetic acid), central pain (hot plate) and formalin pain testing. ETATs (125, 250 and 500 mg/kg bw), ASPIRIN® (100 mg/kg bw) and 9 ‰ NaCl solution (10 mL/kg bw) were administered orally to animals and tramadol (30 mg/kg bw) was administered intraperitoneally. The results indicate that ETATs significantly inhibited the pain sensation induced by acetic acid injection by 54.28% and increased the latency time of leakage or licking of the mouse paw induced by the hot plate by 27.60 ± 1.50 seconds. ETATs showed a significant antinociceptive effect against formalin-induced pain at 2.5% in rats during neurogenic (37.36%) and inflammatory (74.43%) phases. The total aqueous extract of Terminalia superba has peripheral and central analgesic properties similar to those of ASPIRIN® and tramadol respectively in rats and mice.