¹Department of Pharmacology, MES College of Pharmacy, Sonai, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India. Affiliated to University of Pune. India
²Department of Pharmaceutics, MES College of Pharmacy, Sonai, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India. Affiliated to University of Pune. India
³Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. H.S. Gaur Central University. Sagar. (M.P.) India
⁴Department of Pharmaceutics, Govt. College of Pharmacy, Aurangabad, Maharshtra, India DOI : 10.12991/mpj.2014187240 The aim of present study was to investigate the anti-diarrheal activity of Ficus microcarpa against experimentally induced diarrhea in rats. Albino rats were used for the experiment. Anti-diarrheal activity was determined by castor oil induced diarrhea. The extract of the bark administered orally at a dose 300 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg. The extract of Ficus microcarpa produced a marked anti-diarrheal effect in rats. Both doses of extract significantly decreased (P<0.05) the total number of wet feces produced by administration of castor oil (4.31 at the dose of 300 mg/kg and 7.16 at the dose of 600 mg/kg) as compared to the castor oil treated control group (20.75). The Ficus microcarpa extract was found to possess an anti-enteropooling activity. Oral administration of castor oil produced a significant increase (P<0.05) in the intestinal fluid (3.14 ml) as compared to the normal rat (1.29 ml). The extract when given orally one hour before castor oil, significantly inhibited (P<0.05) the enteropooling; 1.48 ml (300mg/kg) and 1.68 ml (600mg/kg). The results revealed that the extract inhibited the small intestinal motility of the charcoal marker in the rats by 23.92-31.12% whereas the inhibition was noted to be 61.2% in the case of treatment by loperamide. The results of this investigation conclude that the extract contains pharmacologically active substances with anti-diarrheal properties. Further research is to be carried out to fractionate and purify the extract, in order to find the molecules responsible for the anti-diarrheal activity. Keywords : Anti-diarrheal activity, Ficus Microcarpa, Castor oil, Methanolic extract