Anti-diarrhoeal potential of asparagus racemosus wild root extracts in laboratory animals

Purpose: Asparagus racemosus Wild root has been used traditionally in Ayurveda for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. However, the claims of Ayurveda need to be validated by a suitable experimental model. Therefore, the present study was under-taken to evaluate the effect of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Asparagus racemosus for its antidiarrhoeal potential against several experimental models of diarrhoea in Albino Wistar rats. Methods: The antidiarrhoeal activity of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Asparagus racemosus root was evaluated using castor oil-induced diarrhoea model in rats. Further, we evaluated the effect of ethanol and aqeous extracts on gastrointestinal tract motility after charcoal meal administration and PGE₂ induced intestinal fluid accumulation (enteropooling). Loperamide was used as positive control. Results: The plant extracts showed significant (P 〈 0.05) inhibitor activity against castor oil induced diarrhoea and PGE₂ induced enteropooling in rats when tested at 200 mg/kg. Both extracts also showed significant (P 〈 0.001) reduction in gastrointestinal motility in charcoal meal test in rats. Conclusion: The results point out the possible anti-diarrhoeal effect of the plant extracts and substantiate the use of this herbal remedy as a non-specific treatment for diarrhoea in folk medicine.