Evaluation of Antidiarrhoeal Potential of Bryophyllum Pinnatum in Experimental Animals

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the antidiarrhoeal potential ofBryophyllum pinnatum against several experimental models of diarrhoea inAlbino Wistar rats. We studied the effects of aqueous extract of the leaves ofBryophyllum pinnatum in the castor oil induced diarrhoea model. Weight andvolume of intestinal content induced by castor oil were studied by theenteropooling method. The gastrointestinal transit rate was expressed as thepercentage of the longest distance traversed by charcoal divided by the totallength of the small intestine. Loperamide (5 mg/kg), diphenoxylate (5 mg/kg)and atropine (3 mg/kg) were used as standard drugs. Extract was used in 100,200 and 300 mg/kg doses. At all the three doses the aqueous extract showedsignificant antidiarrhoeal activity against castor oil induced diarrhoea andcastor oil induced enteropooling in rats. There was also significant reductionin gastrointestinal motility in the small intestinal transit test. Results obtainedin this study substantiate the antidiarrheal effect of the aqueous extract ofBryophyllum pinnatum leaves and its use by traditional practitioners in thetreatment of diarrhoea. Further studies are needed to completely understandits mechanism of anti-diarrhoeal action.