Abstract
Mental and neurological diseases including depression, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, epilepsy, anxiety disorders and bipolar disorders account for a considerable amount of the world’s disease burden. Unfortunately, drugs used in the treatment of neurological diseases are expensive, symptomatic and they produce undesirable side effects. People from different cultures prefer to use medicinal plants for the treatment of various ailments ranging from plain to perplex disorders because they are most affordable, cost effective and easily accessible source of treatment in the primary healthcare system throughout the world. Withania coagulans, an erect grayish under-shrub belongs to family Solanaceae. It is common in Pakistan, East India, Iran and Afghanistan. The objective of this study was to analyze the anti-seizure activity of crude methanolic extract of Withania coagulans fruits (MeWc). For screening of this activity, maximal electroshock seizures model (MES) and chemically-induced seizures models were used. In maximal electroshock seizures test MeWc showed significant dose dependent percent protection against hind-limb tonic extension; significant and dose-dependent increase in latency to myoclonic jerks and tonic clonic convulsions and decrease in seizures duration were observed in PTZ-induced seizures. In strychnine-induced convulsions MeWc significantly increased latency to hind-limb tonic extension and percent protection from death in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, it was inferred from the experiments that extract of Withania coagulans showed anticonvulsant activity.
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Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to Dr. Syed Mujtaba Shah for identification of plant material and Dr. Mudassir Shah for critical comments on Manuscripts. This study has been financially supported National Research Program for University (NRPU # 3842) by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
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ZFK, MAS and RUH designed the study. ZFK, BA and MJ performed experiments presented in this study. ZFK and AAA analyzed and interpreted the data and ZFK, MAS and RUH prepared manuscript.
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Study has been conducted on laboratory animals according to the approved ethical guidelines of the institution for care and use of laboratory animals with approval number AUST/Pharm/AEC/2016/008.
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Authors declare that they have not any scientific or financial conflict of interest to any person or organization. RUH received research grant from Higher Education Commission of Pakistan HEC/NRPU# 3842 and declare no conflict no interest.
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Khattak, Z.F., Ansari, B., Jamal, M. et al. Anticonvulsant activity of methanolic extract of Withania cogulans in mice. Metab Brain Dis 36, 2437–2443 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-021-00850-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-021-00850-0