Volume 17, Issue 39, January - June, 2023

Biological evaluation of Ficus elastica leaves for antidepressant and anxiolytic activity

Akash Koley¹, Shyamal Kumar Biswas², Nabanita Sadhukhan¹, Souvik Ghosh¹, Pujan Sasmal^2♦

¹Department of Pharmacology, Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology & Allied Health Sciences, Uluberia, Howrah, West Bengal-711 316, India
²Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology & Allied Health Sciences, Uluberia, Howrah, West Bengal-711 316, India

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology & Allied Health Sciences, Uluberia, Howrah, West Bengal - 711 316, India
ORCID: 0000-0002-6421-8397

ABSTRACT

Background: Medicinal plants play a vital role in questing of drug discovery as numerous of conjugates are present. Ficus plants, which are members of the Moraceae family, are frequently employed in traditional medicine to treat a wide range of illnesses. Ficus elastica is one of the plants used in Ayurveda for treatment of various CNS disorders. Recent statics of World Health Organisation (WHO) states that depression is one of the diversified neurological disorders and includes number of underlying diseases including anxiety, bipolar disorder etc. Ficus species are rich source of polyphenolic compounds, flavonoids which are responsible for psychiatric diseases such as neurodegenerative and hepatic diseases. Results: The methanol extract showed the significant decreased in the immobility time for FST (75.66 ± 3.38 sec and 52.66 ± 2.73 sec) and TST (91.0 ± 13.12 sec and 71.66 ± 14.4 sec) after 1 and 2 hr at 50 mg/kg dose. In elevate plus maze model the results described that chloroform extract (97.28 ± 3.70 sec) was significantly effective as compared to diazepam (106.53 ± 4.35 sec). Additionally, none of the extract displayed neurological toxic effect in rotarod test. Conclusions: The study revealed that F. elastica leaves consist of active phytochemical constituents which are responsible for the effectiveness against neurological disorders. The potent results of FST, TST, Elevated Plus Maze and Rotarod model of swiss albino mice confirms the antidepressant an anxiolytic activity of the F. elastica leave extracts. Different parts of F. elastica can be extracted evaluated for assessment of wide range of pharmacological activities. The results also encourage for the isolation of phytoconstituents from different ficus species and evaluation for the neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: Ficus elastica, Extraction, Antidepressant, Anxiolytic, Elevated Plus Maze, Rotarod, Immobility

Drug Discovery, 2023, 17(39), e21dd1924

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v17i39.e21dd1924

Published: 11 May 2023