Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2020)

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory and systemic auto immune disease affecting people predominantly between the ages of 20-50 years with unpredictable course. About 1% of the world's population is afflicted by rheumatoid arthritis and is two to three times more common in women than men. Allopathic medications have been prescribed to alleviate symptoms of this disease which results into associated side effects like heart attack, stroke, stomach ulcers, bleeding from the digestive tract, and kidney damage etc. Hence the use of herbal medicine is becoming popular due to toxicity and side effects of allopathic medicines. The present study reveals that plant Opuntia stricta possess in vitro anti arthritic activity. In vitro anti arthritic activity done by protein denaturation method. The activity may be due to presence of secondary metabolites. The plant extracts showed anti arthritic activity in a concentration dependent manner and the activity was increased on increasing the concentration of extracts.