Meenakshi Bawari

Biochemical Screening of The Effect of a Plant Extract on Albino Mice Physiology

A plant shows medicinal or toxic property depending upon its active constituents. It is easily acceptable that a plant may show both the property in different combination or concentration. Here in this study a plant having medicinal use has taken for screening its toxicity. It has been found that the plant showed marked toxicity against the nervous system and liver of albino mice. The elevation in the entire three enzyme ie. Brain LPO, SGOT and SGPT by the seed extract of Thevetia peruviana has cleared the fact that the extract affects the physiology of the animal.

Evaluation of The Harmful Effect of a Medicinal Plant Extract On Micebrain

The present study aims to assess the harmful effect of a selected medicinal plant extract on albino mice and investigate its impact on its behavior and brain enzymes. Here force swim test showed significantly dose dependent increase immobility. But in case of locomotor activity there found significant decrease in experimental group. Besides significant elevation of Lactate dehydrogenase activity and reduction of Catalase activity of brain was found, which showed the negative effect of the extract. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Alstonia scholaris extract has some harmful effect on mice brain. Introduction The plant Alstonia scholaris is a medicinal plant used against different diseases. Its extract can cure asthma, hypertension, lung cancer, pneumonia, fever (Holdsworth, 1986). It is also reported as a stimulant, carminative, stomachic, expectorant and febrifuge in earlier study (Nadkarni, 1976). On the other hand Baliga et al., (2004) found toxic effect of A.scholaris extract. It has been seen that toxins of various plants are involved as final common mediators of neuronal death associated with various types of neurotoxic insult (Dawson, 1995). Lathyrism, one of the oldest neurotoxic disease known to man result from excessive consumption of the Chickling pea, Lathyrus sativus and certain related species (Spancer,1986). Behavioural outcome indicates the status of internal physiological environment of an animal brain. Enzyme is another key factor between brain and behavior. Here both behavioral and biochemical tests has been performed to sketch a brief idea about the possible toxic effect of the plant extract. MaTErIalS & METHOds The fresh stem bark of Alstonia scholaris was collected from the nearest forest of Dargakona area belongs to Cachar district of Assam, India and identified by “Assam University Herbarium collection centre”. Than the extract was prepared by dipping the grind material in distilled water (Akindele & Adeyemi, 2010). The Swiss albino mice (25-30g) were collected from Pasteur institute, Shillong. The handling and experiments of animals were according to the rules and guidelines of “Assam University Animal Ethics Committee”. After acclimatization mice were divided into three groups (6 in each) and treated for seven days. The first group (Control) was getting intra peritoneal injection of distilled water. Similarly second group (low) got 100 mg/kg (body weight) and third group (high) got 200 mg/kg (bw) A. scholaris aqueous extract. (Baliga et al, 2004). Besides two another group of animal was taken treated by Diazepam (1mg/kg, ip.) and Fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, ip.) for compared as standard drug (Wattanathorn et al., 2006). Than 2 behavioral experiments was performed ie. Force swim test and Locomotor activity. Force swim test was performed by Porsolt et al., 1977. The antidepressant activity in immobility (second) of swimming was assessed for 5 minute. Fluoxetine was used as standard drug. In locomotor activity test Rebai & Djebli, 2008 procedure was used. The number of crossed squares was recorded for each mouse per time of 5 min for 20 min investigation. Diazepam was used as standard drug. After that the mice were sacrificed and cerebral cortex and midbrain were separated and washed with saline for biochemical assay. Than the tissue were homogenized with 0.05 M phosphate buffer for performing catalase assay (Aebi,1974). Similarly another portion of both the tissue were homogenized in 0.32M sucrose for performing lactate dehydrogenase assay (Wroblewski & Ladue, 1955). Protein was also measured by Lowry et al., 1951 for calculating specific activity of the brain enzymes. The values were evaluated by one way ANOVA along with Students-Newman Keuls, Turkeys multiple comparison test (*P<0.05 & **P≤0.001 vs Control). results & Discussion Among all animal models, the forced swim test (FST) remains one of the most used tools for screening antidepressants (Demouliere et al., 2005). Here the plant extracts treated groups showed significant (P≤0.001) increase in immobility time of the test. On the other hand Fluoxetine treated group developed a significant (P<0.05) decreased duration which was compared as standard drug (Fig 1). Rebai & Djebli, 2008 found similar result of decreasing immobility due to Aluminum chloride toxicity. It reflects the depressant activity of the extract.