<i>O‐</i>Acetyl Bakuchiol Exhibits Analgesic, Anti‐Inflammatory and Anti‐Arthritic Effects: A Combined In Silico and In Vivo Experimental Study

In the present manuscript, we evaluated the analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects of bakuchiol derivative, O-acetyl bakuchiol (BAc), at 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg p.o. doses in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. BAc at 20 mg/kg p.o. exhibited maximum analgesic (47.4%), anti-inflammatory (66.50%) and anti-arthritic effects. Among the different parameters studied for anti-arthritic effects, BAc at 20 mg/kg increased the body weight (2.89%), decreased the paw thickness (72.46%) and decreased the paw inflammation (48.59%) in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA)-induced arthritic rats. In haematological/serum and biochemical parameters, BAc at 20 mg/kg brought the altered levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), Hb, HCT, RBC, TLC and platelet count, HDL, cholesterol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein (CRP) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) factor near to the normal. Moreover, the spleen weight was also reduced in BAc-treated rats at 20 mg/kg. Histopathological analysis further revealed that a reduction in paw inflammation was observed in paw ankle joints, and no inflammation was observed in brain, liver, lungs and kidney in BAc-treated rats at 20 mg/kg p.o. Molecular docking studies further revealed that BAc has better binding affinity for tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) (Protein Data Bank [PDB] ID: 7JRA) -7.19 kcal/mol comparable to standard methotrexate with binding affinity -9.56 kcal/mol. Therefore, the present investigation provided the basis for the development of BAc as a potential candidate for the treatment of arthritis.