Actividad antiinflamatoria de flores y hojas de Caesalpinia pulcherrima L. (Swartz)

introduction: aerial parts of caesalpinia pulcherrima l. (swartz) have been used in traditional medicine in southern cundinamarca department for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. objective: evaluate the antiinflammatory activity of flowers, leaves and green fruits of the plant to quantify inflammatory activity of acute and subchronic murine inflammation models. methodology: this study quantified the anti-inflammatory activity of different extracts of aerial tissues of this species for two models of acute inflammation, the ear edema induced by tpa (12-o-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate) and plantar edema induced by carrageenan, as well as the sub-chronic inflammation model of granuloma induced by cotton pellet. results: the flower extracts proved to have the largest anti-inflammatory activity in the tpa model, while the leaves were more effective in reducing the granuloma in the cotton pellet model. there was no anti-inflammatory activity of any extract carrageenan model. the green fruits showed no activity in any model. conclusion: the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the ethnobotanical use attributed to this plant. the active extracts obtained showed the potential use of this plant in making safe and effective phytomedicines. salud uis 2011; 43 (3): 281-287