Vet World Vol.10 July-2017 Article-5
Research Article
Veterinary World, 10(7): 743-747
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.743-747
Anti-diarrhea activity of the aqueous root bark extract of Byrsocarpus coccineus on castor oil-induced diarrhea in Wistar rats
2. Department of Veterinary Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.
3. Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Background and Aim: The use of traditional medicine as an alternative source of cure for many ailments has played an important role in health care delivery in both developing and developed countries. Byrsocarpus coccineus Schum and Thonn (Connaraceae) is used in traditional medicine for treatment of various disease conditions, including diarrhea. The anti-diarrhea activity of the root bark aqueous extract of B. coccineus was investigated in this study.
Materials and Methods: Acute toxicity evaluation of the aqueous extract of B. coccineus root bark was performed in exposed rats. Diarrhea was induced in exposed rats with castor oil, and the effect of the extract on castor oil-induced gastrointestinal motility and enteropooling was consequently investigated.
Results: In the acute toxicity study, the extract caused no death in treated rats nor produced signs of delayed toxicity, even at 5000 mg/kg. The aqueous root bark extract of B. coccineus also decreased the distance travelled by activated charcoal in the gastrointestinal tract of treated rats when compared to control rats. Results of castor oil-induced enteropooling revealed slight reduction in the weight of intestinal contents of treated rats compared to control rats. There was significant (p<0.05) decrease in the frequency of defecation as well as in the number of unformed feces produced by castor oil-induced diarrhea at 100 mg/kg dose with 74.96% inhibition of defecation.
Conclusion: The study demonstrated the anti-diarrheic property of the aqueous extract of B. coccineus root bark as currently exploited in our traditional herbal therapy. Keywords: Byrsocarpus coccineus, castor oil, diarrhea, enteropooling.
Keywords: Byrsocarpus coccineus, castor oil, diarrhea, enteropooling.
How to cite this article: Ejeh SA, Onyeyili P, Abalaka SE (2017) Anti-diarrhea activity of the aqueous root bark extract of Byrsocarpus coccineus on castor oil-induced diarrhea in Wistar rats, Veterinary World, 10(7): 743-747.
Received: 18-01-2017 Accepted: 17-05-2017 Published online: 05-07-2017
Corresponding author: Sunday A. Ejeh E-mail: drejehsunday@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.743-747
Copyright: Ejeh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.