title: Cough and Arabinogalactan Polysaccharide from the Bark of Terminalia Arjuna.
abstract: In this work we investigated the antitussive activity of the medicinal tree Terminalia arjuna. We used the stem bark for extraction and preparation of water extracted isolate and its two fractions: acetone-soluble (TA-S) and acetone precipitated (TA-P) fraction. The presence of a pectic arabinogalactan was confirmed in TA-P fraction by chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis. The antitussive activity of samples was assessed after oral administration in a dose of 50 mg.kg(-1) in healthy guinea pigs, in which cough was elicited by inhalation of citric acid (0.3 mol/L) in body plethysmograph. The water extracted isolate showed a significant ability to decrease the number of cough efforts by 64.2 %; the antitussive activity on par with that of codeine phosphate. The TA-P fraction showed the antitussive activity of 54.8 %. In contrast, TA-S fraction had only a mild antitussive activity. No changes in in vivo airway resistance were noted. We conclude that arabinogalactan is an essential component of Terminalia arjuna that underlies its antitussive action.
authors.affiliation: Comenius University in Bratislava, Biomedical Center Martin and Department of Pharmacology, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, 4C Mala Hora, 03 601, Martin, Slovakia. Veronika.Sivova@jfmed.uniba.sk.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sivová
authors.affiliation: Natural Products Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Burdwan, Bardhaman, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bera
authors.affiliation: Natural Products Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Burdwan, Bardhaman, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Martin University Hospital, Martin, Slovakia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nosáľ
authors.affiliation: Comenius University in Bratislava, Biomedical Center Martin and Department of Pharmacology, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, 4C Mala Hora, 03 601, Martin, Slovakia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nosáľová
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000403:Airway Resistance / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D000996:Antitussive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019343:Citric Acid / Q000633:toxicity; D003371:Cough / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005685:Galactans / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008297:Male; D024301:Plant Bark / Q000737:chemistry*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D029766:Terminalia / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000996:Antitussive Agents; D005685:Galactans; D010936:Plant Extracts; D019343:Citric Acid; C005653:arabinogalactan
keywords: Antitussive activity; Arabinogalactan; Codeine phosphate; Cough; Plethysmography