Abstract:Objective : To study the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of extracts from the leaves of Nauclea officinalis Pierre ex Pitard (ELN). Method : ICR mice were divided into 7 groups randomly, namely normal group, model group(0.39 g·kg-1), Sanqi Shangyao pian group (1.56 g·kg-1), aspirin group, Danmu Jingao pian group and ELN(0.390,0.195,0.098 g·kg-1)groups. Each drug was administrated to mice orally once a day for 3 days. 1 h after the last administration, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects were observed by methods of hot-plate, acetic-acid induced writhing, xylene-induced ear edema and acetic acid-induced peritoneal capillary permeability, respectively. The model of carrageenin-induced paws edema in rats were also selected to observe the anti-inflamatory activity 1 h after the last administration of ELN(0.195,0.098,0.049 g·kg-1). Contol group, model group and Danmu Jingao pian group (0.78 g·kg-1) were parallelly setted. Drugs was administrated to rats orally once a day for 3 days before determination. Result : ELN (the content of its main constituent strictosamide is about 16%) could prolong the latent period of pain and decrease the number of writhing induced by acetic acid markedly. The permeability increase of blood capillary induced by acetic acid in mice, the swelling of ear induced by xylene in mice, as well as the edema of paw induced by carrageenin in rats were also significantly inhibited by ELN respectively. Additionally, the amounts of prostaglandin E2(PGE2) in the inflammatory diffusate induced by carrageenin were significantly reduced. Conclusion : ELN has significant analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities which may correlate with the inhibition of production and relase of PGE2.