Abstract
Diarrhea is a major health problem throughout the world and it has become more problematic in developing countries like Ethiopia. People, in several parts of the world, use different traditional medicines for treating diarrhea and it has been reported that the roots, leaves, and flowers of various species are used for the same purpose. In Ethiopia, for instance, Discopodium Penninervum is used for the treatment of diarrhea and also to control infection. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to evaluate the in vivo antidiarrheal and in vitro antimicrobial effect of Discopodium Penninervum in mice. For the antimicrobial activity test, four standard bacteria and disc diffusion method were used, while for antidiarrheal experiment, animals had been used, which were divided into 5 groups. The first group served as negative control and was administered with vehicle (0.2-0.3ml of distilled water). Groups two (D100), three (D200), and four (D400) were administered 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the extract, respectively. Group five served as positive control group and was administered with either loperamide (3mg/kg) for castor oil induced diarrhea and castor oil induced enteropooling diarrhea models or atropine (1mg/kg) for charcoal meal test. Safety study was performed using a standard acute toxicity study procedure. The effect of the extract on castor oil induced diarrheal drops, onset of diarrhea, weight of faeces, small intestinal fluid accumulation, and intestinal motility was measured and analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaves powder of the plant indicated the presence of various components. Inhibition of castor oil induced diarrhea was observed at all tested doses. It can be concluded that crude extracts of Discopodium Penninervum showed strong activities against diarrhea indicating that it contains some chemical constituents that possibly lead to antidiarrheal drug development.
Highlights
Diarrhea is the second most common cause of death in children under five years
The result of preliminary phytochemical screening of the methanolic leaf extract of Discopodium Penninervum is presented in Table 1 and it revealed that the extract contains flavonoids, terpenoids, phenols, saponins, and tannins, whereas cardiac glycosides, sterols, and alkaloids were absent
Acute toxicity study of the hydroalcoholic extract of Discopodium Penninervum was conducted through oral administration of a single dose of 2000 mg/kg
Summary
Diarrhea is the second most common cause of death in children under five years. It causes more than 5-8 million deaths each year in infants and children below 5 years old [1]. Diarrhea is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in many developing countries affecting mainly the infants and children’s [2, 3]. Diarrhea is classified as acute or chronic, with acute diarrhea being the most common form. Infectious agents cause more than 90% of cases of acute diarrhea; these cases are often accompanied by vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. The remaining 10% or so are caused by medications, toxic ingestions, ischemia, and other conditions.
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