The objective of present study was to investigate the anti-arthritic effect of ethanolic and aqueous extract of Curcuma caesia Roxb. rhizomes on Freund’s Complete Adjuvant (FCA) induced arthritis in male Wister rats. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, painful autoimmune inflammatory disease which affects people especially women in high rate. The rhizomes of Curcuma caesia Roxb. were collected, shade dried and the dried material was extracted with ethanol by maceration process. The aqueous extract was obtained by maceration with distilled water. The rats were divided into 4 groups comprising of 6 animals in each group as Control Group, Standard Group (Indomethacin 10mg/kg), Test Group-І, 200mg/kg.p.o. and Test Group-ІІ, 200 mg/kg.p.o. for anti-arthritic activity. Following parameters have been selected to evaluate the anti-arthritic effect such as paw volume, body weight, SGOT, SGPT, and hematological profile WBC, RBC, ESR and hemoglobin content were observed. The results indicate that paw edema is reduced in all treated groups compared with control group. The significant recovery were observed in body weight and hematological profile compared with control group. The level of SGOT and SGPT were not changes in drug treated groups except standard group. The data showed 200mg/kg ethanolic extract is highly potent as compared to aqueous extract. The ethanolic extract of C. caesia Roxb may be beneficial for arthritis.
