Clinical Phytoscience (Aug 2018)

Phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of methanolic extract of Lathyrus sativus L. seeds

  • Shovon Bhattacharjee,
  • Azhar Waqar,
  • Kishan Barua,
  • Abhijit Das,
  • Shukanta Bhowmik,
  • Sumitra Rani Debi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40816-018-0081-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Background Lathyrus sativus L. (Fabaceae) has long been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of several ailments such as Scabies, eczema, and allergy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the phytochemical nature with Central Nervous System (CNS) depressant, analgesic, antipyretic activities of the methanolic plant extract of Lathyrus sativus L. seeds in different experimental models. Methods Preliminary phytochemical screening and proximate analysis was carried out using different standard methods. CNS depressant activity was evaluated observing the effects of plant extract on Swiss albino mice using open field and hole-cross method. Acetic acid induced writhing and formalin induced paw licking methods were used for the appraisal of analgesic activity while 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) induced pyrexia model was used to investigate the antipyretic activity. The data were analyzed by one way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test using SPSS (version 20). Results The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of wide range of phytoconstituents in the plant extract. Our investigation demonstrated that the methanolic plant extract significantly (p < 0.001) decreased the locomotor activity of mice in open field and hole-cross method at both the tested doses (200 and 300 mg/kg) which were comparable to the standard drug diazepam (1 mg/kg). The plant extracts significantly (p < 0.001) inhibited the writhing induced by acetic acid in mice to 87.09% and 80.65% (200 and 300 mg/kg respectively) compared to the standard indomethacin (70.97%). The extracts (200 and 300 mg/kg respectively) also significantly (p < 0.001) reduced the writhing to 43.39%, 64.15% in early and 46.15%, 97.44% in late phase of formalin-induced licking and biting. In 2,4-DNP induced pyrexia the extracts exhibited protection at 200 and 400 mg/kg, similar to standard drug aspirin at 150 mg/kg. Conclusion The results demonstrated that the plant extract has potential CNS depressant, analgesic and antipyretic activity.

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