Anxiolytic-Like Effect of Stephania sinica Diels and Stephania dielsiana Y.C. Wu.

The present work evaluated the anxiolytic activity of aqueous tuber extracts of Stephania sinica Diels (SS) and Stephania dielsiana Y.C. Wu (SD) in animals submitted to different models: Elevated plus maze (EPM) both in group-housed and social isolation-induced stress mice and elevated-T maze (ETM) for inhibitory avoidance and escape measurements. Both aqueous extracts and total alkaloids from of SS and SD markedly increased number of entries and time spent on the open arm, indicating anxiolytic-like activity as showed with diazepam and tetrahydropalmatine. Only SS and diazepam reversed the decrease in number of entries and time spent on the open arm caused by isolation stress. In ETM model, chronic treatment with SS impaired avoidance latencies without altering escape. On the other hand, similarly to clomipramine, SD increased one-way escape latencies from the open arm of ETM, indicating a panicolytic-like effect. These results demonstrate that SS and SD extracts possess anxiolytic-like activity and that phytochemical and pharmacological works need to be done to elucidate the different anxiolytic characteristics between the two above Stephania species.

Keywords: Stephania sinica, Stephania dielsiana, Anxiolytic, Alcaloids, Elevated plus maze, Elevated T maze.

(Nguồn tin: )