Clitoria ternatea and the CNS
Introduction
Clitoria ternatea Linn (Family Fabaceae) is commonly known as “Butterfly pea.” The plant is a twining evergreen herb, which will grow up to 3 m (9 ft) high, climbing over any available prop. The stems are pubescent and spindly. The compound leaves are made of three to nine oval or elliptical leaflets. The flowers are 2–4 cm long and in various shades of blue with a yellow throat or pure white with a big standard petal. The fruits are pods, resembling thin peas. Native to the island of Ternate in the Molluca archipelago, this species is now widely grown as ornamental, fodder or medicinal plant. The roots and seeds have powerful laxative effects, the flowers are used to make collyrium and the leaves are used in Madagascar to relieve joint pain. The plant may start flowering 4 months after sowing. Roots, seeds and leaves of C. ternatea are commonly used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine. The roots are bitter, refrigerant, laxative, intellect promoting, diuretic, anthelmintic and tonic and are useful in dementia, hemicrania, burning sensation, leprosy, inflammation, leucoderma, bronchitis, asthma, pulmonary tuberculosis, ascites and fever. The leaves are useful in otalgia and hepatopathy, whereas seeds are cathartic (Anonymous, 1995). C. ternatea contains antifungal proteins and has been shown to be homologous to plant defensins (Osborn et al., 1995). Rai et al. (2001), using passive avoidance test and spatial learning T-maze, have shown that the aqueous root extract of C. ternatea enhances memory in rats. Taranalli and Cheeramkuczhi (2000) reported that the alcoholic extracts of aerial and root parts of C. ternatea at 300 and 500 mg/kg po doses in rats attenuated electroshock-induced amnesia. The extract at 300 mg/kg dose produced significant memory retention, and the root parts were found to be more effective. The authors suggested that C. ternatea extract increased rat brain acetylcholine content and acetylcholinesterase activity in a similar fashion to the standard cerebroprotective drug pyritinol. Because the other activities of C. ternatea have not been studied, we investigated the nootropic, anxiolytic, antistress and anticonvulsant activities using conventional animal models and also the effects on behavior mediated via dopamine (DA) (haloperidol-induced catalepsy), noradrenaline (clonidine-induced hypothermia), serotonin (lithium-induced head twitches) and acetylcholine (sodium nitrite-induced respiratory arrest).
Section snippets
Extraction
The aerial parts of C. ternatea were collected from garden. Dr. D.R. Mahajan, a botanist at the KTHM College, Nashik, identified the plant material, and the specimen was deposited at the Botanical Survey of India, Pune (Voucher Specimen BSI 163826). The plant material was shade dried. One kilogram of the plant material was defatted with petroleum ether (60–80 °C) and then extracted with methanol. The methanolic extract of C. ternatea (CT, 6.36% w/w) was concentrated under reduced pressure. The
Elevated plus maze
On the first day, the mice entered the central platform (TL) 41.8±1.98 to 77.66±2.38 s after their placement in the EPM. On the second and ninth days, the TL was significantly reduced in all groups. The animals treated with piracetam (50 mg/kg) required least time on both second and ninth days (F2,12=431.18, P<.0001) to enter the central platform. The IR increased after piracetam on the second and ninth days significantly (P=.003), whereas CT increased the IR significantly on ninth day only (P
Discussion
In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, the roots, seeds and leaves of C. ternatea have long been in clinical use. In many Ayurvedic formulations, the C. ternatea is used as a substitute for Evolvulus alsinoids (Anonymous, 1995). Recently, Taranalli and Cheeramkuczhi (2000) reported memory-enhancing activity of C. ternatea. The results of the present investigation suggest that C. ternatea possess a wide spectrum of CNS activity. The CT, though weak, exhibited nootropic, anxiolytic, antistress,
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