Ascertainment of In vivo Antidiarrheal and In vitro Thrombolytic Effect of Ethanolic Extract of Leaves of Amomum dealbatum

Aims: The present study aimed to investigate antidiarrheal and thrombolytic effect of ethanolic extract of leaves of A. dealbatum in mice.

Study design: Antidiarrheal effect was evaluated by castor oil-induced diarrhea method at two different concentrations in mice and in vitro thrombolytic activity was analyzed with clot lysis assay of human blood.

Place and duration of study: Department of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Chittagong, Kumira, Chittagong-4318, Bangladesh, between December 2018 and February 2019.

Methodology: The male Swiss mice’s were divided into four groups (n = 5). First group was orally treated with 1% Tween-80 (10 ml/kg) and second group was orally treated with loperamide (5 mg/kg). Third and fourth group were orally treated with ethanolic extract of leaves of A. dealbatum at 200 and 400 mg/kg accordingly. Human RBCs were collected for conducting thrombolytic assay. During this study, 1.5 ml of venous blood was drawn from healthy volunteers (n = 10) and Streptokinase was employed as positive control and distilled water was employed as negative control.

Results: In castor oil induced diarrhea model, ethanolic extract of leaves of A. dealbatum at 200, 400 mg/kg and loperamide (5 mg/kg) significantly reduced the number of feces and increase percent of inhibition of defecations compared to negative control. The extract showed percent of inhibition of defecation of 16.67 and 37.50 for 200 and 400 mg/ml respectively where the positive control loperamide showed 66.67%. Percentage of clot disruptions were 4.51 (p<.001), 75.69 (p<.001) and 26.07 (p<.001) for water, streptokinase and 10 mg/ml extract respectively.

Conclusion: Based on the results from in vivo and in vitro activities, the leaves of A. dealbatum were found to be a potential source of new antidiarrheal and thrombolytic agents.