Anti-hyperuricemic Evaluation of Swertia-chirayita and Febuxostat on Potassium Oxonate Induced Hyperuricemic Animal Model

Introduction: Hyperuricemia is a metabolic disease characterized by an increase in serum uric acid levels. Hyperuricemia can be controlled by low purine diet or drugs like allopurinol and febuxostat; however, the incidence of adverse effects to these drugs, especially on chronic use, is a major clinical problem. Swertia chirayita; a herb from Gentianaceace family, was selected to observe it’s in vivo uric acid lowering effect in white Albino Wistar rats in whom hyperuricemia was induced through potassium oxonate. Febuxostat was used as a standard. Aims and Objectives: To observe the in vivo effect of different doses of Swertia chirayita extract (SCE) on uric acid levels and to compare its effect with the allopathic medicine febuxostat. Place and Duration of study: A randomized controlled study was held at University of Health Sciences Lahore between June- August 2017. Material and Methods: Forty-eight healthy adult Albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups. Group I and II served as negative and positive controls respectively. Hyperuricemia was induced by injecting KO solution (01ml) intraperitoneally on 1st, 3rd and 7th day of study. Group III received febuxostat 5 mg/kg through oral gavage. Group IV, V and VI were experimental groups, treated with 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg doses of Swertia Chirayita extract respectively through oral route, 02 hours after induction by KO once daily for 07 days. Blood samples were collected to record serum uric acid levels on day zero, first, third and seventh days. (SPSS)version 20 was used for data entry and analysis, pvalue ? 0.05 was given statistical importance. Results: In all experimental groups (IV, V, VI), serum uric acid levels were significantly reduced by Swertia chirayita extract (SCE) (p ? 0.001) as compared to hyperuricemic rats (group II). SCE showed dose dependent SUA suppression. Results of both febuxostat and SCE showed that average SUA levels of these groups were markedly less than hyperuricemic rats (Group II) (p < 0.001) Conclusion: In the light of its hypouricemic activity; we conclude that in the future, Swertia chirayita has the potential for newer therapeutic applications in this regard.