Karunakar Hegde1 
,
Shalin P Thakker2,
Arun B Joshi3,
C S Shastry1,
K S Chandrashekhar3
1Department of Pharmacology, Srinivas College of Pharmacy, Valachil, Post-Parangepete, Mangalore-574 143, Karnataka;
2Department of Pharmaceutics, Soniya Education Trust's College of Pharmacy, S. R. Nagar, Dharwad- 580 002, Karnataka;
3Department of Pharmacognosy, N. G. S. M. Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mangalore-574 160, Karnataka, India.
For correspondence:- Karunakar Hegde
Email: khegde_sh2003@yahoo.co.in Tel:+918242274722
Received: 20 January 2008
Accepted: 1 December 2008
Published: 17 April 2009
Citation:
Hegde K, Thakker SP, Joshi AB, Shastry CS, Chandrashekhar KS.
Anticonvulsant Activity of Carissa carandas Linn. Root Extract in Experimental Mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2009; 8(2):117-125
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v8i2.4
© 2009 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate anticonvulsant effect of the ethanolic extract of the roots of Carissa carandas (ERCC) on electrically and chemically induced seizures.
Methods: The ethanolic extract of the roots of C. carandas (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, i.p.) was studied for its anticonvulsant effect on maximal electroshock-induced seizures and pentylenetetrazole-, picrotoxin-, bicuculline- and N-methyl-dl-aspartic acid-induced seizures in mice. The latency of tonic convulsions and the number of animals protected from tonic convulsions were noted.
Results: ERCC (100-400 mg/kg) significantly reduced the duration of seizures induced by maximal electroshock (MES). However, only 200 and 400mg/kg of the extract conferred protection (25 and 50%, respectively) on the mice. The same doses also protected animals from pentylenetetrazole-induced tonic seizures and significantly delayed the onset of tonic seizures produced by picrotoxin and N-methyl-dl-aspartic acid. The extract had no effect on bicuculline-induced seizures.
Conclusion: The data suggest that the ethanolic root extract of C. carandas may produce its anticonvulsant effects via non-specific mechanisms since it reduced the duration of seizures produced by maximal electroshock as well as delayed the latency of seizures produced by pentylenetetrazole and picrotoxin.
Keywords: Carissa carandas, Ethanol extract, Anticonvulsant activity, Convulsion, Seizures, Mice
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