Abstract:

Suaeda maritima (S. maritima) is a common yellow-green shrub grows in salt marshes. Present study aims to investigate the in-vivo central nervous system depressant, gastrointestinal motility and Brine shrimp lethality bioassay of the methanolic extract of S. maritima. Phytochemical screening was performed to observe the main constituents. Central nervous system depressant activity was evaluated through open field and hole cross tests separately. Gastrointestinal motility activity was observed using charcoal meal method. The extract was screened for cytotoxic activity using brine shrimp lethality bioassay. In open field method, the number of squares crossed by mice were 80.80 ± 1.66 and 80.60 ± 1.66 for 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg extract respectively at zero time, which reduced gradually to 26.00 ± 1.05 and 20.00 ± 0.95 after 60 minutes. Similar decreasing was found in hole cross method. Locomotor activities and exploratory behavior of mice were found to be decreased after the oral administration of S. maritima. On the other hand, S. maritima extract inhibit 62.9% and 69.7% gastrointestinal motility for 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg body weight of dose. In brine shrimp lethality test, LC50 values obtained from the experiment were 0.451 μg/μl and 0.254 μg/μl for S. maritima extract and positive control vincristine sulphate respectively. This study confirms the moderate cytotoxic effect of S. maritima that implies the presence of potent bioactive compounds. S. maritima possessed remarkable central nervous system depressant and gastrointestinal motility activities with moderate cytotoxic activity. Further investigation is warranted to find out the bioactive components with their exact mechanism of actions for drug development program.

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