Paper Title
The Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of the Methanolic Extract of Tamus Communis L. Roots

Abstract
Tamus communis L. (Dioscoreaceae) traditionally used in folk medicine in Algeria to lower inflammatory pain and in the treatment of rheumatism. The objective of the present work is to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the methanolic extract of T. communis roots. The antioxidant capacity was determined DPPH and β-carotene/linoleic acid tests. Carrageenan-induced paw edema in rat was used as the experimental model for the inflammation. Three doses (150, 300 and 600 mg/kg body weight) of the methanolic extract of T. communis were selected for the anti-inflammatory study. The antioxidant activity using DPPH showed an IC50 of 0.128 ± 0.011 mg/ml. Using the β-carotene/linoleic acid bleaching assay, the methanolic extract of T. communis exhibited high antioxidant activity with 88.13 ± 4.03% inhibition. In carrageenan-induced paw edema in rat, all doses of T. communis did not show inhibition of rat paw edema. In conclusion, the methanolic extract of T. communis exhibited high antioxidant activity which is related to their phenol compounds. Keywords - Tamus communis L., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, DPPH. β-carotene.