Abstract

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE ANTIDEPRESSANT ACTIVITY OF MUCUNA PRURIENS IN MICE

Sarvesh Singh, Anjula Sachan, Hemant Singh, Pratap Shankar*, Dheeraj Kumar, Amod Kumar Sachan, Rajendra Nath and Rakesh Kumar Dixit

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Depression is a widespread illness in the modern population. Many herbal medicines have been used as alternative therapy for depression. Mucuna pruriens, belonging to family Fabaceae, has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for various ailments. Present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-depressive activity of acute and chronic administration of Mucuna pruriens in forced swimming test (FST). Methods: The study was conducted on 30 male Swiss albino mice. Animals were divided into five groups (n = 6 /group): control (normal saline, p.o.), the three doses of Mucuna pruriens (100, 200, 400 mg/kg, p.o.) and standard dose of imipramine (20 mg/kg, p.o.) for 30 days treatment. The pharmacologically validated model forced swimming test (FST) was used to take as a measure of antidepressant activity. Results: Mucuna pruriens showed dose dependent decrease in immobility time. At the dose of 200 mg/kg it reduced immobility time significantly on day 20 and day 30 while at the dose of 400 mg/kg it significantly reduced the Immobility time on day1, Day10, Day 20 and Day 30 (p < 0.05) in experimental model (FST) as compared to control group. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the anti-depressant activity of Mucuna pruriens in Swiss albino mice. The antidepressant activity of Mucuna pruriens was comparable to that of standard drug, imipramine.

Keywords: Mucuna pruriens, Forced swimming test, Antidepressant, Imipramine.