Decaffeinated Tea Extract and its Fractions attenuate Clonidine- induced Aggressive Behavior in Mice

Abstract

Introduction: Considerable data have been generated on anti-aggressive drugs of different pharmacological profiles. Present study was based on research findings that caffeine produced inverted ‘U’ shaped aggressive behavior in mice, lower and very higher doses reducing aggressive behavior and moderate doses increasing aggressive behavior. Therefore, we studied effect of decaffeinated tea and its fractions on clonidine- induced aggression in mice. Objective: Objective was to evaluate the effect of polyphenol rich Decaffeinated Tea Extract (DTE) and its fractions namely chloroform fraction (DTCf), ethyl acetate fraction (DTEa), diethyl ether fraction (DTDe) and acetone- water fraction (DTAw) against clonidine- induced aggressive behavior in mice. Methods: Mice were pretreated with caffeine (10 mg/Kg, i.p.), DTE (100- 300 mg/kg) or its fractions (100, 200 mg/kg) and clonidine (30 mg/Kg, i.p.) was administered after 30 min. Diazepam (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) was used as reference standard. Aggressive behaviour viz: latency to first attack and total no. of attacks were observed in transparent activity chamber for1hr duration. Results: DTE 300 mg/Kg, i.p. increased latency to first attack and decreased total no. of attacks significantly (P< 0.0001) as compared to control group. DTCf, DTDe and DTAw at doses 100 & 200 mg/kg significantly decreased number of attacks (P<0.0001) while DTEa in doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg, significantly increased latency to first attack (P<0.0001) as compared to control group.