Pages: 25-32

Abstract

The current research was performed to study the analgesic, cytotoxic and antidiarrhoeal ‎activity of ethanolic extract of the stem and root of Ardisiasolanacea (Poir) Roxb. The ‎extracts showed statistical significant analgesic activity in acetic acid induced writhing ‎inhibition in mice. The extract of stem and root showed writhing inhibition of 67.05% and ‎‎71.05% respectively at the dose of 500mg/kg. In the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the ‎extract showed minor cytotoxicity in stem and root with LC50 of 165.799 and 185.485µg/ml ‎respectively. Whereas, the standard drug vincristine sulfate showed LC50 of brine shrimp ‎nauplii at 0.482µg/ml. Antidiarrhoeal activity was investigated on animal model, Swiss ‎Albino mice. Ethanolic extract of stem and root of Ardisia solanacea (Poir) Roxb were ‎effective in reducing feaces in castor oil induced diarrhoeal mice as 47.2% and 53.1% ‎respectively at a dose of 500mg/kg. The above results indicated that the ethanolic extract of ‎the plant, Ardisia solanacea (Poir) Roxb has significant analgesic activity with moderate ‎antidiarrhoeal effect and has minor cytotoxic activity. Further investigations can be done to ‎find out the active constituents responsible for these effects‎.