Anti-diarrhoeal activity of a polyherbal formulation in rats and elucidation of its cellular mechanisms

• Published in: Avicenna journal of phytomedicine 2020-07, Vol.10 (4), p.417-427
• Main Authors: Murugan, Sasikumar, Purusothaman, Divya, Richard, Edwin Jothie, Chalichem, Nehru Sai Suresh, Bethapudi, Bharathi, Chandrasekaran, Prasanna Raja, Velusami, Chandrasekaran Chinampudur, D'Souza, Prashanth, Mundkinajeddu, Deepak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anti-diarrhoea; anti-secretory; camp; castor oil; diarrhoeal drop; enterotoxin; Original
• ISSN: 2228-7930; 2228-7949
• DOI: 10.22038/ajp.2019.14339

The present study was aimed to study anti-diarrhoeal activity of a polyherbal formulation (PHF) in rats and elucidate its mechanism of action. Anti-diarrhoeal activity of PHF was investigated using castor oil-induced diarrhoea, small intestinal transit and enteropooling models in rats. PHF was tested at 75, 150 and 300 mg/kg rat body weight. Loperamide was used as a reference control for studies. Anti-secretory action was evaluated against heat labile enterotoxin (from ) induced secretion in rat ileal loop model. The effect of PHF (12.5-100 µg/ml) on cAMP-dependent secretory activity was investigated against forskolin-induced cAMP release in HT-29 cells. PHF demonstrated significant (p≤0.05) anti-diarrhoeal activity by increasing the time for first faecal drop and inhibited diarrhoeal episodes by 43, 58 and 60% at 75, 150 and 300 mg/kg body weight, respectively in a dose-dependent manner. Also, the intestinal transit was inhibited upto 33% and the weight of secretory contents induced by castor oil was significantly reduced by PHF, approximately 29% in enteropooling assay. On the other hand, the intestinal loop instilled with PHF and enterotoxin from demonstrated 61% inhibition of fluid accumulation as compared to loop instilled with enterotoxin only. studies indicated that PHF inhibits cAMP release in HT-29 cells corroborating the anti-secretory effects observed in aforesaid studies. The results suggest that the PHF possesses anti-diarrhoeal activity, evident through reduced faecal output, decreased intestinal transit and anti-secretory activities.