Prokinetic and laxative effects of the crude methanolic extract of Viola betonicifolia whole plant in rodents

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Muhammad Saeed¹  Naveed Muhammad²  Haroon Khan³  Najeeb ur Rehman⁴  Anwarul-Hassan Gilani⁵ 

[1] Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, 25120, Peshawar, Pakistan;Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, 25120, Peshawar, Pakistan;Gandhara College of Pharmacy, Gandhara University, Peshawar, Pakistan;Gandhara College of Pharmacy, Gandhara University, Peshawar, Pakistan;Natural Product Research Unit, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The Aga Khan University Medical College, 74800, Karachi, Pakistan;Natural Product Research Unit, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The Aga Khan University Medical College, 74800, Karachi, Pakistan;College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia;

关键词: Viola betonicifolia;    Prokinetic;    Laxative;    Cholinergic;    Jejunum;    Ileum;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-13-70

 received in 2012-09-09, accepted in 2013-03-19,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe present study was aimed to provide ethnopharmacological basis for the medicinal use of Viola betonicifolia whole plant in indigestion and constipation.MethodsMice were used in in-vivo prokinetic and laxative studies while in-vitro experiments were conducted on isolated tissues of rabbit and guinea-pig gut preparations suspended in a tissue bath to measure isotonic contractions.ResultsThe crude methanolic extract of Viola betonicifolia (VBME) showed partially atropine-sensitive prokinetic (50 and 100 mg/kg) and laxative (30 and 100 mg/kg) activities in mice. When tested in isolated rabbit jejunum and guinea-pig ileum, VBME caused dose-dependent contractions at 0.01-0.3 mg/mL and 0.03-5 mg/mL, respectively. The spasmogenic effect was partially sensitive to atropine, while the presence of pyrilamine, SB203186 or hexamethonium had no effect in both gut preparations. VBME partially inhibited acetylcholinesterase enzyme (19%) in the in-vitro assay. The spasmodic effect of VBME was more efficacious in guinea-pig ileum than rabbit jejunum preparation. The phytochemical analysis of the crude methanolic extract for total alkaloids and saponins revealed that the VBME is a rich source of alkaloids and saponins.ConclusionsThis study showed the prokinetic and laxative effects of Viola betonicifolia in mice, partially mediated through cholinergic action. The in-vitro spasmodic effect of the plant extract was also partially sensitive to atropine indicating more than one mechanisms in the gut stimulant effect. This study provides a rationale for the medicinal use of Viola betonicifolia in indigestion and constipation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Muhammad et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.