OBJECTIVE: Herbal drugs have an advantage of having ability to modulate more than one cellular event involved in inflammation. A pharmacological study was carried out to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of Asparagus racemosus (AR)and Uraria picta (UP)and investigate their mechanisms of action. AR was selected for anti-inflammatory evaluation since it contains flavonoides and steroidal saponins. It is reported for anti-ulcer and immunomodulatory activity. UP is an ingredient of traditional Ayurvedic medicine, Dashamoola, used for treating inflammations but till now no scientific evaluation has been carried out. METHODS: Aqueous extract of roots of AR (ARAE) and Ethanolic extract of whole plant of UP (EUP) were studied for their in–vitro inhibitory activity in NO radical scavenging assay (20-300 µg/ml) and lipoxygenase assay (50-100µg /ml). In–vivo evaluation was carried out in carrageenan induced rat paw edema at 200-600 mg/kg (p.o.). The most active dose (600 mg/kg) for both the plants was taken up for the mechanistic studies in mediator (bradykinin, histamine, arachidonic acid) induced rat paw edema. The involvement of nitric oxide (NO) system was studied by injecting L-Arginine (300 mg/kg, i.p.) 2 hours after the injection of carrageenan in the rat hind paw. RESULTS: ARAE and EUP showed a maximum of 62.99% and 59.33% (at 300 μg/ml) scavenging of NO radical respectively. EUP showed 25.48 % inhibition (at 100 μg/ml) while ARAE failed to inhibit lipoxygenase activity. ARAE and EUP showed a dose dependent inhibition of carrageenan induced inflammation with ED50 of 366.46 mg/kg and 328.94 mg/kg respectively. ARAE and EUP (at 600 mg/kg, at 20 min) produced inhibition of 49.3%, 31.48% and 58.88%, 48.27% in bradykinnin and histamine induced rat paw edemas respectively. EUP showed 45.10% (at 75 min) inhibition. in arachidonic acid induced rat paw edema while ARAE was inactive. L-Arginine reduced anti-inflammatory activity (at 4 hr) from 63.74% to 32.237% for ARAE and from 68.53% to 46.27% for EUP. CONCLUSION: Asparagus racemosus and Uraria picta have significant anti-inflammatory activity possibly mediated by inhibition of histamine, bradykinnin and suppression of NO pathway. The anti-inflammatory effect of EUP could also be mediated via the inhibition of lipoxygenase activity. The investigation revealed that UP has better anti-inflammatory potential than AR.