Medicinal plants have been used in Ayurveda for treatment of topical inflammation, skin wound owing to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The present study deals with the comparative evaluation of invitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential of aqueous, ethanolic and methanolic extracts of leaf and rhizome of Ricinus communis and Circuma amada respectively. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts were prepared by homogenization. Their thin layer chromatography profiles were studied for the presence of bioactive phytochemicals. The qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out by standard biochemical assays. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of extracts were determined by colorimetric estimation to find their correlation with antioxidant activity. Invitro anti-oxidant activity was evaluated by ferric reducing power assay and total antioxidant capacity. Invitro anti-inflammatory activity of leaf and rhizome extracts was examined by protease inhibition activity, albumin denaturation inhibition assay and membrane stabilization.TLC profiling of extracts of both plants showed presence of phytochemicals with Rf values between 0.09-1 for R. communis and 0.12-0.57 for C. amada. The highest total phenolic (12.8±0.253mg GAE/gm extract) content was observed in methanolic extract of R. communis and flavonoid (303±0.157mg QE/gm extract) content in ethanolic extract of C. amada. Results Zdemonstrated that the alcoholic extract of R. communis showed significant anti-inflammatory activity by inhibiting heat induced albumin denaturation, 60.63±0.23% haemolysis inhibition, and antiprotease activity as compared to C. amada. The study revealed that alcoholic extracts of R. communis contains potent antioxidant compounds, which possesss anti-inflammatory activity, justifying its popular uses in traditional medicine.

Keywords : Ricinus communis; Curcuma amada; inflammation; antioxidant; invitro.