The Faculty of Pharmacy discussed the master’s thesis tagged “Phytochemical Investigation of Leucaena leucocephala (Family: Leguminosae) cultivated in Iraq and evaluation of its anti-inflammatory activity in Rats models” for student Azal Satar Al-Baaj and her supervisor Lecturer. Dr. Thukaa Zuhair Abdul-Jalil in the Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants Department. This study aimed to extract and investigate the phytochemicals that are present in the leaves and stems of Leucaena leucocephala, then isolate them and study their pharmacological effectiveness as an anti-inflammatory using plant extracts and compare them with the drug diclofenac sodium. The study involved extracting two parts of the plant (leaves and stems) that had never been studied before using two different methods. The crude extracts were collected and dried before being subjected to preliminary analyses that included phytochemical tests, thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Many of the active compounds from these parts were isolated by HPLC and PLC, and then the isolated compounds were identified and characterized by thin layer chromatography (TLC), Fourier transformation of infrared spectra (FTIR), melting point, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. The result proved the presence of phytochemical compounds (Lupeol, campesterol, stigmasterol, resveratrol, apigenin, rutin, quercetin, caffeine acid, p-coumaric acid, isorhamnetin, luteolin) that were identified, isolated, and purified. The results of the anti-inflammatory activity study were good in ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracted from the leaves by the cold method. At a concentration of 250 mg/kg, Iraqi Leucaena leucocephala demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity by reducing inflammation in Albino rat models by lowering serum TNF- and IL-6 levels, as well as the percentage of exudate and granuloma.
