Antiinflammatory and acute toxicity studies with the leaves of Vinca rosea Linn in experimental animals.

Vinca rosea (fam. apocynaeceae) is a medicinal plant commonly grown in Indian gardens and a native of West Indies. Various parts of this plant have been reported to exert antidiabetic, hypotensive and antileukemic property (1-3). Significant hypoglycemic and antihyperglycemic activity of water soluble fraction of alcoholic extract of leaves of Vinca rosea in rats have already been reported by the authors (4). The present study was undertaken to investigate the possible effect of the same extract on inflammation induced by carrageenan on experimental animals along with its acute toxicity studies.