Introduction: Pain is a very well-known signal of ill health and analgesics are the drugs that are used to relieve pain. The main problem with these drugs remains that of side effects. Safer alternatives are natural herbs. Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) is one such plant with analgesic potential but few studies are there.
Objective: To evaluate the analgesic activity of commercially available extract of Guduchi (T. cordifolia).
Materials and methods: For this purpose commercially available extract of Guduchi (T. cordifolia) by Himalaya Drug Company, Bangalore was used. Albino rats were divided randomly in three groups of six rats each. Group 1 (control) received distilled water orally, group 2 (test) received T. cordifolia extract in dose of 300 mg/kg orally and group 3(standard) received Pentazocine in dose 10mg/kg intraperitoneally. Analgesic activity was evaluated using hot plate and abdominal writhing method. All the observations were analysed statistically using student's t-test.
Observation and results: T. cordifolia extract significantly (p<0.05) increased the response time and decreased the number of writhes in hot plate method and abdominal writhing method respectively, on comparison with the control group.
Conclusions: The above findings suggest that this commercially available extract of Guduchi (T. cordifolia) possess analgesic activity. This analgesic activity probably involves peripheral as well as central mechanisms as the extract showed analgesic activity in both hot plate and abdominal writhing method.
Keywords: Analgesic; Anti-nociceptive; Guduchi; Hot plate method; Pain; Tinospora cordifolia; Writhing.