Manas Kumar Das, Papiya Mitra Mazumder and Sanjita Das
The purpose of this research work is to establish the anticonvulsant activity of Butea monosperma (Lam.) Kuntze (Fabaceae) generally used in traditional medicine for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, amnesia and mental illness. In this study, the anticonvulsant activity of the crude methanol stem extract of Butea monosperma (BMME) and its isolated bioactive compound at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg respectively using Pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced convulsion (chemically induced convulsion) and Maximal electroshock convulsion (MES) induced convulsion (electrically induced convulsion) models were investigated in Swiss albino mice. The sedative and hypnotic effect was also studied using the Phenobarbital induced sleep model. The onset of Phenobarbital induced sleep was decreased dose dependently, there was a marked increase in the duration of sleep when compared with the control group. BMME at doses of 100-300 mg/kg significantly decreased (p<0.001) the tonic hind limb extension in MES induced convulsion. There was 66.67% and 83.33% protection against convulsion and mortality respectively at the highest dose of 300 mg/kg. In PTZ induced convulsion, BMME delayed all the parameters like onset of jerk, straub tail, onset of clonus and extensor phases in a dose dependent manner. 300 mg/kg of BMME with 45 mg/kg Pentobarbital showed the highest activity in this test. Isolated compound from BMME also produced significant effect in PTZ induced convulsant model. These findings suggested that the methanol extract of the plant and its isolated bioactive fractionare beneficial in the treatment of epilepsy.
