Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Pharmacological Investigation of Selected Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh

Abu Hasanat Md. Zulfiker^1,2, Amdadul Md Hoque³, Tanzena Akter⁴, Aysha Afroz², Mohammad Abdul Motalib Momin⁵

¹Division of Molecular and Gene Therapies, School of Medical Science and Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, QLD, 4222, Australia; ²Department of Pharmacy, School of Science & Engineering, Southeast University, Banani, Dhaka-1213; ³Department of Pharmacy, North South University, Bashundhara, Dhaka-1229; ⁴Department of Pharmacy, East West University, Aftabnagar, Dhaka-1219; ⁵Department of Pharmacy, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

For correspondence:- Mohammad Momin Email: motalibju@yahoo.com Tel:+8801718072824

Received: 24 February 2014 Accepted: 20 September 2014 Published: 24 November 2014

Citation: Zulfiker AH, Hoque AM, Akter T, Afroz A, Momin MA. Pharmacological Investigation of Selected Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(11):1925-1931 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i11.22

© 2014 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: To pharmacologically investigate the methanol and petroleum ether extracts of the plant leaves of Manilkara zapota (MZME and MZPE, respectively), Abroma augusta (AAME and AAPE, respectively) and Vitex negundo (VNME and VNPE, respectively).

Methods: Analgesic and anti-diarrheal activities were assessed by acetic acid-induced writhing and castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice, respectively, while CNS depressant activity was evaluated using hole-cross and open-field method by observing the decrease in exploratory behavior and spontaneous motor activity in mice, respectively.

Results: All the extracts exhibited good analgesic activity at a dose of 200 mg/kg with the following rank order of activity: MZME > MZPE > VNME > VNPE > AAME > AAPE. Analgesic activity was insignificant at 100 mg/kg dose except for VNPE (67.81 % inhibition). The extracts produced significant reduction in diarrheal episodes in mice at a dose of 400 mg/kg MZPE (highest protection: 80.3 %, p < 0.05) and VNME (lowest protection: 38.6 %, p < 0.001). The extracts demonstrated CNS depressant activity in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05 compared to the standard except for AAME and AAPE which showed insignificant activity).

Conclusion: The results indicate that the traditional use of the investigated plants appears to be justified; however, further studies are required to unravel the underlying mechanisms of action.

Keywords: Manilkara zapota, Abroma augusta, Vitex negundo, Analgesic, Central nervous system depressant, Anti-diarrhoeal