Abstract
BackgroundTill now many of medicinal plants having claimed therapeutic value traditionally are waiting scientific verification of their efficacy and safety. Accordingly this study is conducted to evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of hydromethanolic root extract of Indigofera spicata Forssk. in castor oil induced diarrhea model, misoprostol induced secretion model and its antimotility activity using charcoal as a marker.MethodsIn all the three models the animals were randomly allocated into five groups of six animals each and then group I mice were received 1 ml/100 g normal saline, group II were treated with standard drug as a positive control whereas group III, IV and V were treated with 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg extract doses, respectively. Statistical significance of differences in the mean of number of defecations, fluid content of faces, intestinal fluid accumulation ratio, intestinal fluid weight and distance travelled by charcoal between groups was analyzed by SPSS version-21 using one way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparison.ResultThe hydromethanolic crude extract of Indigofera spicata at 200 and 400 mg/kg mg/kg doses showed statistically significant (p < 0.05) inhibition of the frequency of defecation and weight difference of the fluid content of the faces compared to the negative controls. For those doses the percentage inhibition of diarrheal feces was 43.62 and 53.51 %, respectively. The antisecretary activity of the extract in terms of fluid accumulation ratio was not found significant but in terms of intestinal fluid weight, all the extract doses revealed significant (p < 0.05) inhibition. Unlike the standard drug, the antimotility activity of the extract was not found statistically significant compared to the negative control.ConclusionRoot of Indigofera spicata Forssk. has shown promising antidiarrheal activity which validates its traditional use. Further studies are needed and possibly the plant may serve as a potential source of new agent in the therapeutic armamentarium of diarrhea.
Highlights
Till many of medicinal plants having claimed therapeutic value traditionally are waiting scientific verification of their efficacy and safety
Further studies are needed and possibly the plant may serve as a potential source of new agent in the therapeutic armamentarium of diarrhea
Diarrhea is generally defined as the passage of abnormally liquid or unformed stools associated with increased frequency of defecation, and abdominal pain [1]
Summary
Till many of medicinal plants having claimed therapeutic value traditionally are waiting scientific verification of their efficacy and safety. Birru et al BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2016) 16:272 approximately 40 % of childhood deaths from diarrhea worldwide will occur in Sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2000, only 19 % of the world’s population under the age of 5 years will live in this region. This continuing epidemic deserves sustained programmatic and research attention as international public health moves on to confront newer issues in infectious disease and the changing burdens of disease associated with the demographic transition [5, 6]
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