RESUMO
Nepeta cataria Linn (Family Labiatae), commonly known as catnip, is a herbaceous plant and is a native of southeast Europe, Orient, Southwest Asia and Western temperate Himalayas. Leaves and flowering tops, which contain tannin and volatile oil are aromatic, carminative, tonic, diaphoretic, refrigerant, emmenagogue, antiseptic, stimulant and useful in infantile colic and hysteria. Leaves are deltoid-oval with double layers of palisade, petiole about as long as blade, arc shaped in t.s., having vascular bundle flanked by 2 smaller bundles in two projection; stem hollow in the middle; leaves, petioles and stems contain glandular and uniseriate, multicellular non glandular hairs; TLC of alcoholic extract in Benzene: Chloroform (1:1) shows 8 spots and UV absorbance shows strong peak at 212 nm; extractive values and ash values were also determined.
RESUMO
Strophanthus (Family apocynaceae) contains glycosides which are comparable with cardiac glycosides of Digitalis but has less harmful physiological actions, S. kombe Oliver is officially used but some other species of this genus also contain glycosides and resemble the official one and thus often used as adulterants, This study shows distinguishing features of some strophanthus species.
RESUMO
Arthritis was produced in adult albino rats weighing 120+-10g through intramuscular injections of 0.5ml of 2 percent w/w formalin beneath the plantar aponeurosis on the first and third day. The anterioposterior diameter of the ankle was recorded and statistically analyzed. It was evident that relatively low doses, 0.25ml/100g body weight, of tincture of Hypericum perforatum produced a significant 48 percent anti-inflammatory effect, whereas higher doses, 0.5ml/100g body weight, of the drug showed 32 percent activity under identical conditions. Parallel studies with 1mg/100g body weight hydrocortisone administration gave similar anti-inflammatory effects. Local application of an alcoholic extract of the drug in very small doses also produced significant skin softness and flexiblility of muscle
