Bronchospasm potentiating effect of methanolic extract of Ficus religiosa fruits in guinea pigs
2011
Ahuja, Deepti | Bijjem, Krishna Reddy V. | Kalia, Ajudhia N.
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The sacred tree Peepal (Ficus religiosa family: Moraceae) has numerous therapeutic utility in folk medicine. AIM OF THE STUDY: It has been reported to be used in ethno medical treatment of asthma and also in epilepsy due to its high serotonin content, which has been implicated in pathophysiology of asthma, this led us to carry out the present study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vivo studies of histamine induced bronchospasm in guinea pigs and in vitro isolated guinea pig tracheal chain and ileum preparation. RESULTS: Pre-treatment of guinea pigs with ketotifen (1mg/kg, p.o.) has significantly delayed the onset of histamine aerosol induced pre-convulsive dyspnea, compared with vehicle control (281.8ᵃ±11.7 vs. 112.2±9.8). The administration of methanolic extract (125, 250 and 500mg/kg, p.o.) did not produced any significant effect on latency to develop histamine induced pre-convulsive dyspnea. On the other hand, methanolic extract of the fruits at the doses employed (i.e., 0.5, 1 and 2mg/ml) has significantly potentiate the EC₅₀ doses of both histamine and acetylcholine in isolated guinea pig tracheal chain and ileum preparation. In addition, HPLC analysis of the methanolic extract showed the presence of high amounts of serotonin (2.89%, w/w). CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of data, it may be concluded that Ficus religiosa fruits have been found to be ineffective against histamine induced bronchospasm in guinea pigs. In addition, methanolic extract of the fruits have shown to potentiate the bronchoconstriction induced by both histamine and acetylcholine on guinea pig tracheal chain preparation.
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