Abstract:
The conventional drugs used to manage fever are usually not affordable, not easily available and have adverse
side effects. Alternative therapeutic agents, like medicinal plant derivatives, should therefore be developed because
they have been reported to be more affordable, more readily available and have lesser side effects. Terminalia
brownii is traditionally used to manage fever but this ethno-medicinal claim lacks scientific validation. The present
study therefore evaluated the anti-pyretic activity of T. brownii in Wistar rats. Fresh bark samples of T. brownii were
collected from Kitui County, Kenya. This study used 30 adult male Wister rats that were 2-3 months old and weighing
140-180 g was used for the experiments. Steam-distilled turpentine was the pyrogen used to induce pyrexia and
Aspirin was used as the reference drug. The extract reduced the elevated rectal temperatures by between 1.15-
4.38% while aspirin reduced the elevated rectal temperatures by between 0.00-4.85%. The present study showed a
significant dose-dependent anti-pyretic activity of methanolic bark extracts of T. brownii hence validating its folklore
use as a fever remedy
