Mythili A and Jothimanivannan C
Objective: Justicia gendarussa Burm is an herbal plant that has several therapeutic effects. It also heals depression, grief, nervous stress and tension. In the present study we evaluated anti-depressant effect of ethanolic extract from Justicia gendarussa Burm by using Forced Swimming Test (FST).
Methods: Two doses of ethanolic extract of Justicia gendarussa Burm (250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally. Immobility time and swimming time were measured after 30 min of injection and compared with negative control and imipramine as a positive control.
Results: The ethanolic extract (500 mg/kg) was found to be effective and it exhibited activity similar to that of the conventional drug imipramine (p<0.001) whereas 250 mg/kg dose showed higher activity with significantly increased swimming time and decreased immobility time than 500 mg/kg of ethanolic extract and imipramine.
Conclusion: These results proposed 250 mg/kg of ethanolic extract was showed higher anti-depressant activity than the standard.
