Cocos nucifera, more commonly known as the coconut palm tree, is a monocot member of the botanical family Arecaceae, also known as Palmae (United States Department of Agriculture, 2015). Coconut palms are medium-sized, herbaceous plants that thrive on sandy beaches and are resistant to the salinity of nearby ocean water. (Encyclopedia of Life, 2015) While treelike in form, its trunk is not composed of wood, but of fibrous, stout, overlapping stems, and may grow as tall as 80 feet. From the top of these plants sprouts a crown of pinnately compound leaves that can grow up to 15 feet in length. Native to tropical eastern regions, it is cultivated all over the world for its fruit and fiber (National Tropical Botanical Gardens, 2015). …show more content…
Their response unfolded in two distinct stages: “first phase, neurogenic pain response [and]… second phase, inflammatory pain response.” Rinaldi et al. (2008) observed that while none of the three treatments had an effect on the first phase, the first fraction (F1) reduced licking time. Lastly, the mice’s paws were injected with Carrageenan, Histamine, or Serotonin after they were pre-treated with the crude extract and its fractions. “Carrageenan induced rat paw edema is a traditional model to evaluate anti-inflammatory drugs,” and results showed that the crude extract did not inhibit the inflammatory effect of this drug. From the results gathered throughout these tests, researchers were able to gain greater insight to the potentially useful effects of crude extract of the husk fiber of Cocos …show more content…
Overall, the tests were positively affected by the pretreatment with the extract, and these are only preliminary studies. With this information, scientists will be able to build off of this study and modify it in order to further evaluate this plant extract and its properties. Perhaps a method of variation in future studies could be to administer the extract by means other than oral administration. It is possible that improvement can be seen in discovering a new method of deliverance. For now, however, researchers from the Federal University of Brazil have uncovered just the beginning of what has potential to provide effective and inexpensive anti-inflammatory care to people all over the world, all in thanks to the beautiful and tranquil Cocos