Evaluation of Antidepressant Activity of Ailanthus excelsa roxb. using Mice as Experimental animal.

Khushbu Chauhan*¹, Payal Santwani¹, Lalkrushn Parmar², Roshni Solanki¹and Subodh Adeshara¹

¹Faculty of Pharmacy, Dharmsinh Desai University, College Road, Nadiad- 387001.

²Shree Swaminarayan College of Pharmacy, Village- Saij, NH-8, Kalol-382721.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction: Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. is a tree belonging to family Simaroubaceae, commonly known as a plant of Heaven. The bark of the plant is reported for various pharmacological activities including ear ache, aantimicrobial, anti-viral, antitumor, cytotoxic, hypotensive, abortifacient, diabetes mellitus, obesity and various uterine disorders in Ayurveda. Methanolic extract of Ailanthus excelsa (MeAe) in 150 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg doses are used for evaluation of antidepressant activity.

Objective: To evaluate antidepressant activity of Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. using mice as experimental animal by actophotometer and forced swim induced despair behaviour methods.

Methods: Swiss albino mice were randomly allocated to 4 groups (n=6); Group I (Normal Control), Group II (Standard group), group III and Group IV (Test Groups). Group I received distilled water while Group II, III and Group IV received Fluoxetine (10 mg/kg, i.p), MeAe 100 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg per oral respectively. Stem bark was extracted by cold maceration process. Antidepressant activity was estimated by actophotometer and forced swim induced despair behaviour methods.

Results: MeAe at dose of 150 mg/kg showed highly significant (p<0.01) increase in locomotion and decrease in immobility period while MeAe 100 mg/kg showed significant results in both methods.

Conclusion: MeAe (150 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg) has antidepressant activity in mice.

KEYWORDS: Ailanthus excelsa Roxb., antidepressant activity, actophotometer, forced swim behaviour and MeAe.

INTRODUCTION:

Each and every individual have an inherent desire to learn and awakening of Advance in science and technology has contributed to an enormous improvement in the quality of life of humankind. However, modern life stress, associated trials and tribulation are responsible for the surge in incidence of variety of psychiatric disorders.¹ Path breaking research in psychopharmacology has flooded the market place with drugs for specification or instance, benzodiazepines (diazepam, nitrazepam, lorazepam and alprazolam etc) are the most frequently prescribed synthetic drugs for variety of condition particularly anxiety, depression, epilepsy and insomnia. But these psychoneural drugs have very serious side effects like chronic use of benzodiazepines causes deterioration of cognitive function, physical dependence and tolerance. ²

In this context, a resurgence of interest in medicine from natural sources (mainly plant products) is seen and there is tremendous hope that drugs of plant origin will have significantly lesser side effects than that observed with synthetic drugs while having comparable efficacy. Drugs derived from traditional herbs may have possible therapeutic relevance in the treatment of depression. Various types of herbal medicines have been used as Anti-depressants in different parts of the world. A variety of naturally occurring drugs such as Thymus linearis, Lactuca seroila, Papaversomniferum (opium) and Atropa belladonna were tested for psychopharmacological effects and were found to be effective in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.³ Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. a plant; used in the Indian system of medicine for variety of purposes. It belongs to Simaroubaceae family which is defined in Engler’s Syllabus. It is one of the most commonly used herbal drug known as Tree of Heaven commonly called Aralu. It is a large deciduous tree widely occurring in Bihar, Chhota Nagpur, Madhya Pradesh, forests of Ganjam, Vishakhapatnam and Deccan.⁴

It contains β-Sitosterol, Quassinoids, Ailantic Acid, vitexin; ailanthione, glalucarubinone, malanthine, excelsin, glaucarubol, 2-6 Dimethoxy-Benzoquinone and Melanthin.⁵Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. posses many therapeutic potential activities like Antimicrobial, anti-viral, antitumor, cytotoxic, hypotensive, abortifacient, diabetes mellitus, obesity, uterine disorders like dysmenorrhoea , ulcerative colitis, chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma.⁵ It posses various Phytochemical constituents like quassinoids which can be used to treat CNS disorders. Some of the plants like Montonoatomentosa, Kunth, Castillegatenuiflora and Penstemen barbatus and Byrsonima containing chemical constituents like coumarin, flavonoids, monoterpines, rotinoids, proanthocyanidine and glycolipids were reported to possess CNS depressant activity.² Based on the above information, the present study was conducted to investigate natural drug Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. for an alternative, more specific, and perhaps cost-free therapy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Drug and Plant material: Fluoxetine was used as reference standard in the present study. Fluoxetine was given i.p.(not exceeded 0.5 ml). The plant Ailanthus excelsa (Simaroubaceae) stem bark was collected in October 2010 from the Uttarsanda region of Kheda district, Gujarat, India. The plant material was authenticated by Mrs.Mayuree A. Patel, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat. All other reagents used were of analytical grade.

Preparation of Plant Extracts: ⁶

Fresh bark was cleaned, dried under shade at temperature 40 ± 2°C and powdered by a mechanical grinder. The dried powder material (100 g) of the stem bark of Ailanthus excelsa was first defatted using 100 ml of petroleum ether for 24 hours and then extracted with 100 ml of methanol by Cold Maceration. The methanolic extract was then distilled, evaporated and dried for about 24 hours. Methanolic extract (MeAe) resulted yield was 1.823%.

Experimental Animals

Swiss albino mice of either sex weighing 25 to 30 g were used in the present study. The experimental protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. The animals were grouped and housed in poly acrylic cages with not more than eight animals per cage and maintained under standard laboratory conditions (temperature 25 + 2^oC). They were allowed free access to standard dry pellet diet and water ad libitum. The mice were acclimatized to laboratory condition for 10 days before commencement of experiment.

Experimental setup for Anti-depressant activity:

The anti depressant activity was evaluated using actophotometer and forced swimming apparatus.

Evaluation of locomotor activity:⁷

The locomotor activity was assessed using digital activity meter (actophotometer). The activity meter consisted of an arena (29 x 22 x 22 cm) and operated on photoelectric cells that were connected in circuit with a counter. When the animal cuts off the beam of light falling on photoelectric cell, a circuit is recorded. After subjecting mice to the stress and 30 minute after drug administration mice was placed gently in this arena and number of counts (locomotor activity scores), recorded for 5 minutes.

Effect on forced swim induced despair behaviour:⁸

Forced swimming is an experimental protocol used for inducing stress in laboratory rodents. When a swimming session begins, the mice swim actively and afterwards they become less active and immobility is observed. The animals were forced to swim individually in glass jar (22 x 10 cm) containing water at a room temperature (25 ºC ± 3 ºC). The height of water level was adjusted to 15 cm and kept constant throughout the experiment. After an initial period of vigorous activity each animals assumed an immobile posture. The mice were judged immobile when they cease struggling and made minimal movement of their limbs to keep the head above water level.

For this experiment total 24 Swiss albino mice were divided in four group and treatment was given as follows;

Group I: normal control, given distilled water, p.o; Group II: standard group received fluoxetine in dose of 10 mg/kg i.p.; Group III: received MeAe in dose of 100 mg/kg p.o; and Group IV: Received MeAe in dose of 150 mg/kg p.o.The total duration of immobility was measured during a total period of 6 minutes.

Stastical analysis: All the values are expressed as the mean ± SEM. The data were analyzed by using one-way ANOVA followed by Turkey’s test, P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS:

Effect of A. excelsa on Locomotor activity:

High dose of MeAe (150 mg/kg p.o) and fluoxetine (10 mg/kg i.p) increased the locomotor activity highly significantly (P<0.01) whereas, low dose of MeAe (100 mg/kg p.o) showed a significant increase in the locomotor activity (Table I and figure I).

Effect of A. excelsa on forced swim induced despair behaviour:

As shown in figure 2 and Table 1, the MeAe treated group at the dose of 100 mg/kg and 150mg/kg, produced significant and highly significant decrease in the immobility period as compared to that of the control group. Fluoxetine (10mg/kg) also significantly reversed the despair behaviour as compared to normal control group. The data were analyzed by using one-way ANOVA followed by Turkey’s test.

Figure 1: effect of MeAe on locomotor activity in actophotometer scores

Figure 2: Effect of MeAe on Immobility Period in forced swim induced despair behaviour

DISCUSSION:

The results of study on Effect on forced swim induced despair behavior support the hypothesis that the Forced swimming test (FST) induces different physiological responses in mice. Mice put into the water initially exhibited escape-directed behavior, such as climbing the wall or jumping, and gradually became immobile⁹. The high immobility period observed in forced swimming test, may have occurred because animals exposed to 20 cm deep water. Forced swimming test and the animals needed a more difficult strategy to keep their heads above the water. In the present study, employing the forced swimming test as a stress model we studied acute effects of Methanolic extract of A. excelsa and Fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor is reported to be useful for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Among these methanolic extract of A. excelsa was found to be effective in decreasing the duration of immobility (despair behavior). Furthermore, present study on the locomotor activity showed that MeAe (150 and 100 mg/kg, p.o) increased the frequency and the amplitude of movements. The increase of the locomotor motor activity could be attributed to the antidepressant effect of the extract¹⁰. With present data it is difficult to predict the precise mechanism for antidepressant activity of MeAe. Further detail investigation has to be carried out.

CONCLUSION:

To conclude, Methanolic extract of Ailanthus excelsa posses antidepressant activity. The results of present study substantiate the traditional use of Ailanthus excelsa for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

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Received on 23.03.2011

Accepted on 12.04.2011

Research J. Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics. 3(3): May –June, 2011, 102-104

Groups	Actophotometer score in 5 min	Immobility period(sec.) Mean ± SEM
Control (drinking water, p.o)	77.83 ± 3.18	151.33 ± 4.52
Fluoxetine (10 mg/kg, i.p)	268.83 ± 9.47	112.50 ± 5.18
MeAe (100 mg/kg, p.o)	306.66± 17.29	99.17 ± 6.90
MeAe (150 mg/kg, p.o)	347.33 ± 8.77	73.17 ± 2.01