Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of the ethanolic extract of Ceriops decandra (Griff.) Ding Hou bark

The crude ethanolic extract of the bark of Ceriops decandra (Griff.) Ding Hou (Family: Rhizophoraceae) was evaluated for its possible anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities in different methods. At the dose of 400 mg/kg body weight, the extract showed a significant anti-inflammatory activity in the carrageenan-induced oedema test in rats showing 67.72% reduction in the paw volume (P < 0.01) comparable to that produced by the standard drug indomethacin (69.29%) at 24 h. The percentage inhibition of the oedema paw volume by the 400 mg/kg body weight of the extract was also statistically significant (*P < 0.05 and **p < 0.01) compared favorably with the indomethacin treated animals at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 24 h. Three complementary test systems for determining the antioxidant activities of the ethanolic extract of C. decandra, namely DPPH free radical scavenging, reducing power, total phenolic contents determination were used for the analysis. In DPPH free radical scavenging test, IC50 value for the ethanolic crude extract was found fairly significant (12.90 μg/ml) while compared to the IC50 value of the reference standards ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxy anisole (2.9372 and 4.81 μg/ml) respectively. In reducing power test the absorbance for ethanolic extract was found to be 1.0900 at 100 μg/ml concentration while compared to 2.8111 and 1.0314 for standard ascorbic acid and BHA respectively at the same concentration. The amount of total phenolic content was also determined and calculated as quite high in the ethanolic extract (309.86 mg/g of gallic acid equivalent). Therefore, the obtained results tend to suggest the probable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of the ethanolic extract of C. decandra bark and justify its use in folkloric remedies.