Antidiarrheal and Antispasmodic Activities of Essential Oil of Myrtus Communis L
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Date
2011-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The essential oil of Myl'/us communis (EOMC) was evaluated for its antid iarrheal and
antispasmodic potential against isolated guinea ileum (OPI), ex-vivo antispasmodic
model; normal and castor oil-induced intestinal transit in mice; castor oi l-induced
diarrhea in mice and prostaglandin induce enteropooling in rats. Atropine was used in
OPI and normal intestinal transit test as a positive control, whereas loperamide was used
in the castor oil-induced intestinal transit and castor oil-induced antidiarrheal test.
EOMC inhibited normal intestinal transit siginificantly (p<0.05) and the effect was
comparable with that of atropine. All doses (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) of the oil
employed showed significant antidiarrheal and antienteropooling activities which was
comparable with that of the positive control loperamide. Different concentrations of the
essential oil were used in the presence of agonist (Acetylcholine) in OP! as contraction
stimulator in ex-vivo. The oil exhibited significant reductions in Acetylcholine-induced
contractions of OP!. The agonist-induced contractions of OP] were greatly reduced by
both doses of 50 fig/ml (p<0.01) and 100 fig/ml (p<0.01), suggesting a powerful
spasmolytic property of the oil. The effect produced showed that the oi l is much more
efficacious than atropine (6.66 xl 0.9 M) in ex-vivo model. The oil appears to be more
efficacious in ex-vivo than in vivo which may be due to the difference in physiological
conditions that exists between the two systems. This study suggested that the essential oil
of M. communis possesses spasmolytic and antidiarrheal properties which are likely to be
due to the a-pinene and linalool present in the oil. The spasmolytic and antidiarrheal
mechanisms might be in part mediated via Ca + -channel blockage. The results obtained in
this study also SUpp0l1 the traditional use of the plant for stomach pains, and diarrhea.
However, fUl1her study should be conducted in order to determine the exact mechanism
(s) of action of the oil and also to characterize the constituents responsible for the activity
observed.Key words: M. communis, essential oil, antidiarrheal, antispasmodic, antienteropooling
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Keywords
communis, essential oil, antidiarrheal, antispasmodic, antienteropooling IX