Antinociceptive Activity of Macaranga denticulata Muell. Arg. (Family: Euphorbiaceae): In Vivo and In Silico Studies

The present study was conducted to investigate the antinociceptive activity of methanol extract of (Met.MD) in an animal model, followed by molecular docking analysis. Antinociceptive activity was determined by acetic acid-induced writhing and formalin-induced licking test in mice. Then, molecular docking study was performed to identify compounds having maximum activity against the COX-1 enzyme using Schrödinger Maestro (version 10.1) to determine docking fitness. A preliminary phytochemical analysis of Met.MD revealed that it contained alkaloids, carbohydrates, phenols, flavonoids, tannins, and terpenoids. Met.MD exhibited a dose-dependent and statistically significant antinociceptive activity in the acetic acid and formalin test at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg. In addition, our docking study showed that macarangin had the best fitness score of -5.81 with COX-1 enzyme among six major compounds of . Results of the present study confirmed the potential antinociceptive activity of leaf extract in both and models.