Research PaperAntidiarrheal and antioxidant activities of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) decoction extract in rats
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Diarrhea is a major health problem, especially for children under the age of 5 years in developing countries including Tunisia (Bryce et al., 2005). This disease is responsible for about 5 million deaths annually (Heinrich et al., 2005). Diarrhea is characterized by a discharge of semisolid or watery fecal matter from the bowel three or more times in one day (Suleiman et al., 2008) leading to inflammatory response and oxidative stress (Song et al., 2011). To protect against this disease, commercial drugs such as diaretyl are frequently used. This drug induces a severe constipation as a side effect and can also lead to colorectal cancer (Power et al., 2013). For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced a program for diarrheal control which involves the use of traditional herbal medicines. However, several naturally-occurring compounds are largely used to protect against digestive system diseases both in experimental and clinical situations.
Matricaria recutita L. (Chamomile) is a well-known medicinal plant species from Asteraceae family. This species is one of the most popular and widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders including diarrhea (Alanís et al., 2005). However, due to its richness in therapeutically active compounds (McKay and Blumberg, 2006), this plant presents many beneficial health effects as antioxidant (Hernández-Ceruelos et al., 2010), neuro-protective (Ranpariya et al., 2011), anti-allergic (Chandrashekhar et al., 2011), anti-inflammatory (Bulgari et al., 2012), anti-microbial (Silva et al., 2012) and anticancer (Matić et al., 2013) activities. Chamomile is also used for its positive effects against digestive system illness (Al-Hashem, 2010).
Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the putative protective effect of CDE on diarrhea induced by castor oil administration as well as the implication of oxidative stress in such protection.
Section snippets
Chemicals
Epinephrine, bovine catalase, 2-Thio-barbituric acid (TBA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) were from Sigma chemicals Co. (Germany). All other chemicals used were of analytical grade.
Preparation of chamomile decoction extract
Chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) flowers were cultivated from the region of Beja (North-West of Tunisia) during March 2012 and identified by Mrs. Mouhiba Ben-Naceur, professor of taxonomy in the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Béja-Tunisia. The Voucher specimens (No. M121) have been deposited with the
Acute oral toxicity of CDE
In the acute oral toxicity study, neither abnormal behavior nor mortality was detected during the observation period. The LD50 value was greater than 3200 mg/kg b.w. for the decoction extract of Matricaria recutita.
Effects of CDE on castor oil-induced diarrhea
We firstly demonstrated in the present study that, 4 h after castor oil (5 ml/kg, b.w., p.o.) administration, all rats produced copious diarrhea (Table 1). However, pre-treatment with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, b.w., p.o.) significantly and dose-dependently reduced the
Discussion
In the present study, we evaluated the protective effects of chamomile decoction extract against castor oil-induced diarrhea in adult healthy rats as well as the implication of oxidative stress in such a protection.
We firstly showed that the LD50 value was greater than 3200 mg/kg b.w. for the CDE. However, neither mortality nor behavior impairment were noted during the observation period. Chamomile methanol extract, has also been shown to have any evidence of toxicity (Chandrashekhar et al., 2011
Conclusion
In conclusion, our data clearly demonstrated the protective effects of CDE against castor oil-induced diarrhea and fluid accumulation in rats as well as the implication of oxidative stress and Fenton pathway in such protection. These findings confirmed the basis for the use of chamomile extracts in traditional medicine for the treatment and/or management of digestive system disorders as diarrhea.
Acknowledgments
Financial support of the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is gratefully acknowledged. Financial disclosures: none declared.
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