Pharmacological and Computational Insights Into the Analgesic, Antipyretic, and Antidiarrheal Potential of Mallotus paniculatus Acetone Extract.

Mallotus paniculatus (Lam.), a member of the Euphorbiaceae Juss family, is a little tree or shrub that has long been used in folk medicine to cure ailments like fever, wound healing, and postpartum recuperation. In this study, Swiss albino mice were used to evaluate the analgesic, antipyretic, and antidiarrheal properties of the acetone extract of M. paniculatus (AMP). Standard screening techniques were used to identify the phytochemical ingredients. Three models were used to evaluate analgesic activity: the tail immersion test, formalin-induced paw licking, and acetic acid-induced writhing. Antipyretic activity was assessed using a fever model induced by brewer's yeast. At the same time, antidiarrheal effects were evaluated by castor oil-induced diarrhea, and gastrointestinal motility was studied using a charcoal meal marker. Furthermore, in silico analyses-such as molecular docking, ADME profiling, toxicity prediction, and PASS analysis-were conducted using online tools. The results indicated that AMP at a lower dose (200 mg/kg) produced significant analgesic effects across all pain models compared with the control group. In the antipyretic evaluation, AMP administered at 400 mg/kg illustrated the most pronounced reduction in body temperature after 4 h, which was statistically significant (p < 0.01). The same higher dose (400 mg/kg) also significantly reduced diarrheal episodes and slowed gastrointestinal motility in both the castor oil-induced diarrhea and charcoal meal transit tests. Molecular docking analysis further corroborated these pharmacological effects, revealing that AMP compounds exhibited strong binding affinity toward key target receptors associated with pain, inflammation, and gastrointestinal activity. Collectively, these results indicate that AMP has promising potential as a natural multitarget therapeutic agent for the treatment of pain, fever, and diarrhea.