Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
Antidiarrheal Activity of Aqueous Fruit Extract of Phoenix dactylifera (DATE PALM) in Wistar Rats
1Abel Nosereme Agbon, 2Helen Ochuko Kwaneshie and 1Wilson Oliver Hamman
1Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine
2Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
British Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology 2013 3:121-127
Received: March 08, 2013 | Accepted: April 05, 2013 | Published: June 25, 2013
Abstract
Diarrhea is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in children under age of 5 years. In view of this problem, the World Health Organization has encouraged studies for treatment and prevention of diarrhoeal diseases depending on traditional medicinal practices. Extracts of Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) are widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various disorders. In this study, the antidiarrhoeal activity of the aqueous fruit extract of Phoenix dactylifera was investigated by castor oil- induced diarrhoea, enteropooling and gastrointestinal motility activity in Wistar rats. Like the standard drug (5mg/kg loperamide), the extract (1000 and 1500mg/kg body weight) elicited a significant decrease in the severity of diarrhoea. The extract significantly (p<0.05) reduced the frequency of defaecation and as well decreased gastrointestinal motility. In the enteropooling study, the extract administered at 1000mg/kg had greater anti-enteropooling effect than the standard drug (5mg/kg loperamide). The result obtained shows that the aqueous fruit extract of Phoenix dactylifera may contain some pharmacologically active substances with antidiarrhoeal properties. This may be the basis for management of gastrointestinal disorders.
Keywords:
Antidiarrheal, castor oil, enteropooling, gastrointestinal transit, Phoenix dactylifera, wistar rat,
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is 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.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
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ISSN (Online): 2044-2467
ISSN (Print): 2044-2459 |
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