BACKGROUND

Ardisia elliptica Thunb Lam. (Myrsinaceae) is widely used traditionally in the treatment of diarrhea related health disorders in Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVE

The crude ethanol extract of Ardisia elliptica fruits (EFA) was evaluated for its antioxidant and antidiarrhoeal activities.

METHODS

DPPH radical scavenging, nitric oxide scavenging, reducing power and Fe(++) ion chelating ability were used for determining antioxidant activities and animal models were used for antidiarrheal activities such as the castor oil and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhea, enteropooling induced by the administration of castor oil and magnesium sulfate at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg.

RESULTS

The extract possessed a significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 30.75 μg/ml compared to ascorbic acid (IC50: 7.89 μg/ml). The IC50 values of the extract and ascorbic acid were 51.72 and 38.68 μg/ml, respectively, in nitric oxide scavenging assay. The IC50 value of the extract for Fe(++) ion chelating ability (41.30 μg/ml) was also found to be significant compared to the IC50 value of EDTA (22.57 μg/ml). The EFA also showed a significant protection (p < 0.001) against experimentally induced diarrhea by castor oil and magnesium sulfate as evidenced by a decrease in the number of defecation with respect to control. The diarrhea induced by castor oil and magnesium sulfate enteropooling was prevented by all the tested doses.

CONCLUSIONS

Therefore, the obtained results confirm the antioxidant and antidiarrheal activity of EFA and thus support the traditional uses of this plant as a modality for antioxidant and antidiarrheal activity.