Effect of Artemisia annua L. leaves essential oil and ethanol extract on behavioral assays

Abstract

RESUMO: "Efeito do extrato etanólico bruto e óleo essencial das folhas de Artemisia annua em modelos comportamentais". Artemisia annua tem sido utilizada tradicionalmente para o tratamento de malária e febre na China devido à presença do princípio ativo, artemisinina. O presente trabalho avaliou a atividade central de do óleo essencial obtido por hidrodestilação e do extrato etanólico bruto de folhas frescas de A. annua em modelo in vivo como parte de um screening farmacológico dessa espécie. Sono induzido por pentobarbital, nado forçado e o ensaio de campo aberto são modelos de estudo conhecidos para o estudo de fármacos sobre depressão induzida. A administração do óleo essencial ou extrato bruto etanólico de A. annua aumentaram o tempo de imobilidade no teste do nado forçado. Por outro lado, diminuíram outros parâmetros no campo aberto, como ambulação, exploração, o ato de lamber as patas ou se lamber. Ambos produtos aumentaram o tempo de sono induzido por pentobarbital, com o óleo essencial apresentando um efeito superior ao do extrato. Pela análise dos resultados, é possível sugerir que tanto o extrato bem como o óleo essencial podem atuar como depressores do Sistema Nervoso Central (SNC). Unitermos: Artemisia annua, Asteraceae, SNC, in vivo.ABSTRACT: Artemisia annua has been used as a traditional plant for the treatment of malaria and fever in China because of the presence of its active compound, artemisinin. The present study evaluated the central activity of the essential oil and the crude ethanol extract of A. annua L. in animals as a part of a psychopharmacological screening of this plant. The extract was prepared in ethanol (AEE) and the essential oil (AEO) obtained by hydrodistillation, both with fresh leaves. Induced immobility, the forced swimming test (FST) and the open-fi eld test (OFT) are well-known animal models to study drug-induced depression. The administration of A. annua essential oil or crude ethanol extract increased the immobility time in the FST and decreased other activities (ambulation, exploration, rearing and grooming) in the OFT in animals. Both AEO and AEE prolonged pentobarbital-induced sleep as well, but the essential oil had a marked effect. Observing these results, it is possible to suggest that A. annua crude ethanol extract and essential oil could act as depressors on the Central Nervous System (CNS).

Sedative effects of IranianArtemisia annuain mice: Possible benzodiazepine receptors involvement

“…Our findings are in accordance with previous studies showing that essential oil and the ethanol extract from A. annua caused strong depressant activity on the CNS (Perazzo et al, 2003(Perazzo et al, , 2008. In our investigation, all three doses of both chloroform and petroleum ether fractions of A. annua (50, 100, 200 mg/kg) significantly caused immobility, and the effects of high dose of chloroform fraction were predominant.…”

“…Moreover, the present results suggest that both fractions may contain different potent compounds that induce sedation via various signaling pathways. Regarding previously published reports, the central inhibitory effects of A. annua may be related to direct or indirect interaction with cholinergic or dopaminergic receptors in the brain (Amos et al, 2003;Perazzo et al, 2003, Perazzo et al, 2008.…”

Terpenóides com atividade sobre o Sistema Nervoso Central (SNC)

“…Compostos como linalool, limoneno e citronelol possuem ação anticonvulsivante, enquanto mentol e mirceno, atividade analgésica. Muitos derivados monoterpênicos têm demonstrado atividades sobre o SNC, incluindo sedativa, antinociceptiva e antidepressiva (Pergentino de Souza et al, 2007;Sousa et al, 2007;Perazzo et al, 2007Perazzo et al, , 2008Leite et al, 2008). O presente trabalho propõe uma revisão sobre terpenos com ações descritas no SNC, enfocando principalmente os sistemas neurotransmissores relacionados a estas.…”

Rapid determination of volatile composition from Polygala furcata Royle by MAE–HS-SPME followed by GC–MS

“…The components of the oil were identiWed by comparison of their mass spectra with those of the spectrometer database using the NIST147 mass spectral database. The identiWcation was conWrmed by comparison of Kovats indices (KI) [19,20,22,31] with those reported in the literature [24,[31][32][33][34][35][36]. The KI was set-up a standard mixture of C 8 -C 26 compounds under chromatographic conditions, consistent with those of the chromatographic conditions of the samples analyzed.…”