Aiswarya Aravind

Currently there is considerable interest in the development of drugs from natural products for various diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antidepressant activity of hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of Alocasia macrorrhizos(AM), which is known to have anti-oxidant activity. In this study, mice were randomly assigned to four groups of six mice each. Group 1and 2 served as control and standard where as group 3 and 4 were treated with hydro alcoholic extract of Alocasia macrorrhizos at the doses of 250mg/kg and 500mg/kg respectively. Drugs were suspended in 1% gumacasia and administered to mice orally one hour before test procedure. After 1 hour mice were screened for its antidepressant property using two well to established models for antidepressant screening like  Forced swim test and Tail suspension test. Study result showed that Alocasia macrorrhizos at 250mg/kg and 500mg/kg significantly reduced immobility duration in both the models when compared to control group showing its antidepressant property. Further when these groups were compared to standard imipramine there was significant difference in immobility duration with AM 500mg/kg where as AM 250mg/kg values were comparable to imipramine. Hence we have concluded that hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of Alocasia macrorrhizos is having  antidepressant property which was comparable to Imipramine at 250mg/kg and significantly better results than imipramine  at 500mg/kg dose.