Bauhinia variegata

Bauhinia variegata (Mountain ebony) is a well known plant in traditional medicine which belongs to the family Cesalpiniaceae. It is widely used for various ailments like skin diseases, tumour, ulcers and various infections. Against this backdrop the present study attempts to scientifically evaluate the analgesic, antifungal, anti-tumour potential of this plant. The ethanolic extract of the plant was prepared by soxhlation. Acute toxicity studies carried out on the extract revealed that it was safe at the dose of 2000 mg/kg body weight. The extract was then evaluated for its analgesic activity by eddy’s hot plate method. The antifungal evaluation was carried against Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus by disc diffusion method in Sabouraud agar medium. The extract was studied for short term in-vitro cytotoxicity against DLA cell lines by Trypan blue assay method. The ethanolic extract of Bauhinia variegata bark exhibited significant analgesic activity at both the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight (p