INTRODUCTION:

The term of medicinal plants include a various types of plants used in herbalism and some of these plants have a medicinal activities. These medicinal plants consider as a rich resources of ingredients which can be used in drug development and synthesis. Besides that these plants play a critical role in the development of human cultures around the whole world. Medicinal plants play a key role in human health care. About 80 percent of the world populations rely on the use of traditional medicines, which are predominantly based on plant materials. The traditional medicine refers to a broad range of ancient, natural health care practices including folk/tribal practices as well as Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. These medicinal practices originated from time immemorial and developed gradually, to a large extent, by relying or based on practical experiences without significant references to modern scientific principles¹.

India is well-known for the use of medicinal plants as a folklore medicine from ancient times. At present many compounds have been isolated from plants for treating numerous diseases. Medicinal plant research has succeeded in overwhelming the problems associated with synthetic drugs in maintaining low toxicity and less side effects². Herbal drugs comprise the use of whole plant or parts of plant for their therapeutic effect^3,4. WHO has distinct herbal drugs as complete, labeled medicinal products that have vigorous ingredients, aerial or secretive parts of the plant or other plant material or combination⁵. These are the oldest form of healthcare known to mankind and is a chief constituent in Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Naturopathic and other medicine systems^6,7. They are usually considered as safe, since they belong to natural sources, and this leads to rapid increase in their use^8,9.

One such herbal drug with various applications is Argemone mexicana. The word Argemone’ is derived from the Greek argena, which means 'cataract of the eye', and this name was used in the first century AD by Dioscorides (AD 40-90) and Pliny (AD 23-79) for some spiny poppies (the juice of which was supposedly a cure for cataract); mexicana is a combination of Mexico with Latin suffix ana, suggesting the name of country of origin¹⁰

A. mexicana, known as Mexican poppy or Mexican prickly poppy, is a species of poppy found in Mexico and now in the United States, India and Ethiopia. The plant is pantropic in distribution and it is a weed in waste places. It is native to America and naturalized throughout India. It is poisonous, but has been used medicinally by parts of Mexico. It possesses the alkaloid sanguinarine reported to responsible for epidemic dropsy^11,12. A. mexicana is reported to have antimicrobial activity¹³, wound healing capacity in rat¹⁴, larvicidal and chemosterilant activity¹⁵, Nematicidal and Allelopathic potential¹⁶. In Mexico infusion of aerial part of the plant is used as hypoglycemic¹⁷. Chemical investigations of this plant have revealed the presence of alkaloids¹⁸,¹⁹ amino acids²⁰ phenolics²¹ and fatty acids²² The aerial part of the plant contains Isoquinoline and Benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids. Alkaloids like Berberine and Tetrahydroberberine, Protopine, Benzophenanthridines has been isolated from the plant²³. A. mexicana is used by traditional healers in Mali to treat malaria, externally in the treatment of cataracts and internally in the treatment of dropsy and jaundice. A. mexicana has been investigated in terms of modern pharmacology for its anti-malarial activity^24,25 Molluscicidal and Nematicidal activity^26,27, anticancer activity, antimicrobial activity^28,29,30,31, Hepatoprotective activity³², anti-HIV activity³³ and Neuropharmacological activity³⁴.

The aerial part of the plant contains Isoquinoline and Benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids. Alkaloids like Berberine and Tetrahydroberberine, Protopine, Benzophenanthridines has been isolated from the plant³⁵.

Figure. No. 1. Photograph showing aerial parts of Argemone mexicana.

Figure No 2 Photograph showing flower of Argemone mexicana.

METERIALS AND METHODS:

Animals:

Rats (180–250 g) of wistar strain of either sex were used for the diuretic activity using different extracts of the aerial parts of Argemone mexicana. The animals were procured from Central animal house, National College of Pharmacy, Shivamogga, Karnataka. After randomization into various groups, animals were acclimatized for period of 10 days under standard husbandry conditions.

Room temperature 270±300C.

Relative humidity 65±10%

12 hours–Light/dark cycle

All the animals were fed with rodent pellet diet (Gold Mohr, Lipton India Ltd.,) and water was allowed ad-libitum under strict hygienic condition. Ethical clearance (NCP/IAEC/CL/01/2016-17) for performing experiments on animals was obtained from Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC).

Acute toxicity studies:

OECD Guideline No. 425 method of CPCSEA was adopted for toxicity studies Tween-80 (1%) was used as a vehicle to suspend the extracts and was administered orally. The testing samples were prepared by suspending the chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts in distilled water using tween 80 (1%) as suspending agent. The initial dose in this experiment was 2000mg/kg body weight which caused no mortality during the observation time. Thus, the median lethal dose (LD₅₀) of the plant extract is said to be greater than 2000 mg/kg, indicating a good safety margin³⁶.

To study various pharmacological activities the fraction was administered in the dose of 200mg/kg body weight which is equal to 1/20th of acute toxicity study.

Preparation of extracts:

Various extracts of the plant material were prepared by continuous soxhlet extraction method. The powdered material of Argemone mexicana was extracted with different solvents (chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts) in a soxhlet extractor. The extracts were concentrated in vacuum using rotary flash evaporator (Buchi, Flawil, Switzerland). The Aqueous extract of plant material was prepared by cold maceration method³⁷. The solvent was removed completely over the water bath and finally desiccator dried. The extract, so obtained was used for the various pharmacological activities.

Diuretic activity:

In the present study albino rats of either sex weighing between 180-250 gm were used for screening of diuretic activity. Furosemide was used as standard diuretic agent, purchased from local medical shop. All the extracts, normal saline and standard drug were administered orally. The animals were maintained under a 12/12-light/dark cycle at the room temperature with free acess to a standard pellet diet and water ad libitium. The method of Lipschitz et.al was employed for the assessment of diuretic activity.

Five groups of six rats in each group were fasted and deprived of water for 18 hours prior to the experiment.

Group I (control)–received normal saline (p.o)

Group II (Standard)-received Furosemide 20mg/kg (i.p)

Group III–received chloroform extract of Argemone mexicana 200mg/kg (p.o)

Group IV–received ethanol extract of Argemone mexicana 200mg/kg b.w (p.o)

Group V-received aqueous extract of Argemone mexicana 200mg/kg b.w (p.o)

All the animals received priming dose of normal saline solution of 25 ml per kg body weight. Group I (control) received normal saline, Group II received the Furosemide and Group III, IV and V received extracts of Argemone mexicana in normal saline.Immediately after the administration, the rats (two in each cage) were placed in metabolic cages specially designed to separate urine and faeces and kept at the room temperature of 25±0.50 C throughout the experiment. The urine was collected in measuring cylinders upto 5 hrs after dosing. During the period, no feed or water is made available to the animals. The parameters taken for each individual rat was total urine volume, pH, concentration of Na+, K+, and Cl-in urine. Finally the mean urine volumes were determined and used for their pH determinations using a pH meter (systronic Digital pH meter). concentrations of Na+, K+, and Cl-were measured by flame photometry and the diuretic potency was assessed by comparison of urine excreation due to the extracts with respect to the standard drug Furosemide^38,39.

Diuretic activity of leaves of Argemone mexicana extracts was performed by modified Lipschitz et al., method, ethanol and chloroform extracts (200mg/kg) of extract of Argemone mexicana leaves induced a significant activity by an increase in urine volume, pH and electrolytes hence they were found to have significant diuretic activity compared to the control. The results are shown in the Table.

Figure: Histogram showing the effect of Argemone mexicana; on electrolytes.

Figure: Histogram showing the effect of Argemone mexicana; on pH and urine volume

Groups	Dose (mg/kg)	pH	Urine volume	Concentration of ions (mEq/l)
Groups	Dose (mg/kg)	pH	Urine volume	Na+	K+	Cl -
Control	25	7.3±0.13	1.65±0.04***	66.17±1.16	35.00±0.58	48.50±0.85
Standard	20	7.10±0.11	4.88±0.25***	105.83±1.4***	47.33±1.87***	70.67±0.6***
Chlorofom	200	7.4±0.16	4.79±0.24***	73.5±0.93***	41.83±0.60***	59.83±0.9***
Ethanol	200	7.27±0.13	2.75±0.12***	76.33±1.05**	42.33±1.05**	63.67±0.85**
Aqueous	200	7.17±0.20	2.84±0.12***	62.00±1.00**	29.17±1.05**	50.33±0.60**

Note: Data was analysed using one way ANOVA followed by pairwise comparision. Values are expressed as mean±S.E.M. n=6, ***P<0.001, **P<0.01 and *P<0.05 ns=not significant.

CONCLUSION:

Diuretic activity:

Diuretic activity was carried out by Lipchitz et al., method and the parameters included were urine volume, pH and electrolytes. Furosemide was taken as standard reference drug. Ethanolic extracts and higher dose of aqueous extract of Argemone mexicana leaves have been shown a significant activity by an increase in all the parameters when compared to control. It can be concluded that active constituents are present in the leaves extracts and may be responsible for diuretic activity. The overall study concluded that, the plant Argemone mexicana could be considered as diuretic agent. Further, the active principles responsible for the activity can be isolated and more investigations are required to prove the exact mechanism for these various activities.

DISCUSSION:

Present study has been shown that the ethanol and aqueous of leaves Argemone mexicana possess good diuretic activity. The EEAM (200 mg/kg) and dose of CEAM (200 mg/kg) have been shown a significant diuretic activity by increasing the urine volume and excretion of sodium, potassium and chloride ions when compared to control, while AEAM at the dose of 200mg/kg has not been shown any significant increase in excretion of sodium, potassium and chloride ions. The observed effect may be attributed to mechanisms like increasing the renal blood flow and the attendant increase in glomerular filtration rate. It is also possible that it has a repressing effect on anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) secretion, as inhibition of ADH causes polyurea. Another possible mechanism involved may be the stimulation of the release of endogenous natriuretic peptides, which promotes sodium and water secretion⁴⁰. The presence of phytoconstituents like terpenoids, saponins, and flavonoids has been reported previously to be responsible for the diuretic activity in plants⁴¹. The phytochemical present in the plant extract may suggest that these substances might be responsible for observed diuretic activity and they may act individually or synergistically.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The authors are thankful to management N.E.S shivamogga for providing the facilities to carry out this research work through The Principal of National College of Pharmacy, Shivamogga.

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Received on 04.04.2018 Modified on 29.05.2018

Res. J. Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics.2018; 10(3):105-108.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5836.2018.00020.4