Abstract:
Background:Till now many of medicinal plants having claimed therapeutic value traditionally are waiting scientific
verification of their efficacy and safety. Accordingly this study is conducted to evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of
hydromethanolic root extract ofIndigofera spicata Forssk. in castor oil induced diarrhea model, misoprostol induced
secretion model and its antimotility activity using charcoal as a marker.
Methods:In all the three models the animals were randomly allocated into five groups of six animals each and
then group I mice were received 1 ml/100 g normal saline, group II were treated with standard drug as a positive
control whereas group III, IV and V were treated with 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg extract doses, respectively. Statistical
significance of differences in the mean of number of defecations, fluid content of faces, intestinal fluid accumulation
ratio, intestinal fluid weight and distance travelled by charcoal between groups was analyzed by SPSS version-21 using
one way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparison.
Result:The hydromethanolic crude extract of Indigofera spicata at 200 and 400 mg/kg mg/kg doses showed
statistically significant (p< 0.05) inhibition of the frequency of defecation and weight difference of the fluid content of
the faces compared to the negative controls. For those doses the percentage inhibition of diarrheal feces was 43.62
and 53.51 %, respectively. The antisecretary activity of the extract in terms of fluid accumulation ratio was not found
significant but in terms of intestinal fluid weight, all the extract doses revealed significant (p< 0.05) inhibition. Unlike
the standard drug, the antimotility activity of the extract was not found statistically significant compared to the
negative control.
Conclusion:Root ofIndigofera spicata Forssk. has shown promising antidiarrheal activity which validates its traditional
use. Further studies are needed and possibly the plant may serve as a potential source of new agent in the therapeutic
armamentarium of diarrhea
