Anti-diarrhoeal potential of Asparagus racemosus wild root extracts in laboratory animals.
OBJECTIVE
Asparagus racemosus Wild root has been used traditionally in Ayurveda for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. However, the claims of Ayurveda need to be validated by a suitable experimental model. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Asparagus racemosus for its antidiarrhoeal potential against several experimental models of diarrhoea in Albino Wistar rats.


METHODS
The antidiarrhoeal activity of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Asparagus racemosus root was evaluated using castor oil-induced diarrhoea model in rats. Further, we evaluated the effect of ethanol and aqueous extracts on gastrointestinal tract motility after charcoal meal administration and PGE2 induced intestinal fluid accumulation (enteropooling). Loperamide was used as positive control.


RESULTS
The plant extracts showed significant (P < 0.05) inhibitor activity against castor oil induced diarrhoea and PGE2 induced enteropooling in rats when tested at 200 mg/kg. Both extracts also showed significant (P < 0.001) reduction in gastrointestinal motility in charcoal meal test in rats.


CONCLUSIONS
The results point out the possible anti-diarrhoeal effect of the plant extracts and substantiate the use of this herbal remedy as a non-specific treatment for diarrhoea in folk medicine.
Venkatesan
N
N
K.P. College of Pharmacy, Thiruvannamalai, India.
Thiyagarajan
Vadivu
V
Narayanan
Sathiya
S
Arul
Arokya
A
Raja
Sundararajan
S
Vijaya Kumar
Sengodan Gurusamy
SG
Rajarajan
Thandavarayan
T
Perianayagam
James Britto
JB
D000818:Animals; D000930:Antidiarrheals / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D027761:Asparagus Plant; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018517:Plant Roots; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D000930:Antidiarrheals; D010936:Plant Extracts