Anticonvulsant activities of the methanol crude extract and fractions of the leaf Solanum americanum (S.a.) in pentylenetetrazole and 4-amino pyridine induced seizure in white albino rats

Abstract

This research investigated the anticonvulsant effect of the crude extract and fractions of Solanum americanum’s (S.a.) leaves on seizures induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) and 4- amino pyridinein albino rats to authenticate the use of the leaves in the treatment of epilepsy in South -Eastern Nigeria. The leaves of S.a were extracted with methanol and fractionated using n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The parameters observed were onset of convulsions in minutes, duration of clonic phase in minutes, percentage protection from seizures and mortality. The anticonvulsant tests were carried out using 60 (sixty) white albino rats (weighing 80-136 g) of both sexes, varying concentrations of both methanol extracts and fractions (12.5, 25.0, 50.0, 100 and 200 mg/kg b.w.) were administered to the rats after which convulsion were induced in the rats using 9.0 mg/kg of PTZ and 1.5 mg/kg 4-amino pyridine on different groups (35 and 25) of rats respectively. The results of the various groups were compared with the control group and significance was analyzed by one-way ANOVA. The acute toxicity test was conducted at a dose of 3000 mg/kg. At a peak dose of 200 mg/kg methanol crude extract, hexane and methanol fraction in PTZ model protected the animals from seizure at 89.30%, 100%, 100% but gave 80%, 80% and 60% protection from mortality respectively. Hexane fraction (12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) protected the rats against mortality at 20%, 40%, 60%, 60% and 80% respectively, while no anticonvulsant activities were detected in ethyl acetate fraction. Differences among the means and standard deviation was statistically significant at P < 0.05.The acute toxicity test showed that the leaf of S.a. is non-toxic. The result obtained substantiated the use of the leaf of Solanum americanum ethnobotanically as anticonvulsant.