The Journal of Phytopharmacology, 2014;3(6):423-430 DOI:10.31254/phyto.2014.3609

Research Article

Evaluation of antidiarrheal and antinociceptive activity of methanolic extract of Alstonia scholaris Linn. on mice models

Mohammad Shahadat Hossain¹ , Ziku Chandra Dey¹ , Md. Imdadul Hoque² , Md. Saddam Hossain Bhuiyan³ , Hasan Al Banna⁴

Mohammad Shahadat Hossain,Ziku Chandra Dey,Md. Imdadul Hoque,Md. Saddam Hossain Bhuiyan,Hasan Al Banna

1. University of Science & Technology Chittagong (USTC), Chittagong, Bangladesh
2. Department of Pharmacy, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3. Department of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
4. Executive, Medical Services Department, Opsonin Pharma Limited, Rupatali, Barisal, Bangladesh

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract

Alstonia scholaris is an indigenous medicinal plant of Bangladesh. The leaves have been used traditionally as folk remedies for the treatment of many diseases including diarrhea, dysentery, and malaria and snake bites. The ripe fruits of the plant are used in syphilis and epilepsy. It is also used as a tonic, anti-periodic, and anthelmintic. However, there was no study on whole plant extract of Alstonia scholaris. The present study designed to investigate the anti-nociceptive and anti-diarrheal activities of Alstonia scholaris on animal models at different doses such as 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg. Various methods also employed for investigating these activities such as castor-oil induced diarrhea, castor-oil induced enteropooling and gastrointestinal motility test, and acetic acid induced writhing test, tail immersion and hot plate methods. The diarrheal episode was inhibited by 50.79% and 57.14% for methanol extract at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg respectively. The extract significantly (p