Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

In Vivo Evaluation of Antidiarrhoeal Activity of the Seed of Swietenia macrophylla King (Meliaceae)

Anup Maiti, Saikat Dewanjee, Subhash C Mandal

Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy Research Laboratory, Division of Pharmacognosy, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032, India;

For correspondence:- Subhash Mandal Email: subhashmandal@yahoo.com Tel:0091-33-24146126

Published: 28 June 2007

Citation: Maiti A, Dewanjee S, Mandal SC. In Vivo Evaluation of Antidiarrhoeal Activity of the Seed of Swietenia macrophylla King (Meliaceae). Trop J Pharm Res 2007; 6(2):711-716 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v6i2.5

© 2007 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 seeds of Swietenia macrophylla are used in traditional medicine for the treatment of diarrhoea. Thus the petroleum ether extract of Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae) seeds was investigated for its anti-diarrhoeal property in Wister albino rats to substantiate folklore claim.

Methods: Petroleum ether extract of the seeds of this plant, at graded doses (25, 50 & 100mg/kg body weight) was investigated for anti-diarrhoeal activity in term of reduction in the rate of defecation and consistency of faeces in castor oil induced diarrhoea. To understand the mechanism of its anti-diarrhoeal activity, its effect was further evaluated on intestinal transit and castor oil induced intestinal fluid accumulation (enteropooling).

Results: At various doses (25, 50 & 100mg/kg body weight) the extract showed a remarkable anti-diarrhoeal activity evidenced by the reduction in the rate of defecation and consistency of faeces. Results are comparable to that of standard drug diphenoxylate (50mg/kg body weight). A single oral dose of Swietenia macrophylla extract of 100mg/kg body weight produced a significant decrease in the severity of diarrhoea. Extract produced profound decrease in intestinal transit (4.45 - 34.60%) also significantly inhibited castor oil induced enteropooling comparable to that of intraperitoneal injection of standard drug atropine sulphate at doses of 0.1 mg/kg body weight and 3 mg/kg body weight respectively.

Conclusions: Experimental findings showed that petroleum ether extract of seeds of Swietenia macrophylla possess significant anti-diarrhoeal activity and may be a potent source of anti-diarrhoeal drug in future.

Keywords: Swietenia macrophylla, anti-diarrhoeal activity, castor oil, atropine sulphate.