In Vivo Antidiarrheal and Cytotoxic Potential of Different Fractions of Pandanus Foetidus Leaves

Md. Mominur Rahman², Md. Razibul Habib³, Md. Atiar Rahman^4*

¹ Department of Systems Immunology, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwondo, Korea 200-701.

²Department of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh.
³ Superintendent of Drugs, Directorate General of Drug Administration, Bangladesh.

⁴ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chittagong.

^*Corresponding author:

M. Atiar Rahman PhD,

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

University of Chittagong

Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh

Tel:+88-31-2606001-10, Extn-4334

Fax:+88-31-726310

E-mail: atiarh@yahoo.com

Abstract

This study investigated the antidiarrheal and cytotoxic effects of methanol, petroleum ether, chloroform and aqueous fractions of Pandanus foetidus leaf extract. Antidiarrheal effect was measured in castor oil induced- diarrhea, -enteropooling and -gastrointestinal motility (GI) test models in albino mice. Cytotoxicity was investigated in brine shrimp lethality bioassay. All data were analyzed by the software, statistical package for social science (SPSS), Version 18.0. The extracts (200 mg/kg) showed a remarkable antidiarrheal activity by reducing the number of defecation and maintaining the consistency of feces. The petroleum ether, chloroform and aqueous fraction of the extract significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the diarrheal incidence at the dose of 200 mg/kg. Castor oil induced enteropooling and fluid accumulation was significantly reduced by methanol and chloroform fraction, whereas gastrointestinal motility was shrunk by the aqueous fraction only. Loperamide was used as a reference drug in the above mentioned models. In cytotoxicity test, the lowest LC₅₀ was found to be 106.97 μg/ml by the chloroform fraction of the extract. The results demonstrated that Pandanus foetidus extract could be used as pharmaceutical preparation of anti-diarrheal and cytotoxic agent obtained from appropriate solvent system.

Keywords: Antidiarrheal activity; castor oil; enteropooling; intestinal transit; cytotoxicity; Pandanus foetidus.

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