Shanthun-Al-Arefin
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Shahnaz Rahman
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Shiblur Rahman
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Mahfuza Akter
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Mahmuda Munmun
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Marjina Akter Kalpana
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Sharmin Jahan
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Md. Shaiful Alam Bhuiyan
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Mohammed Rahmatullah
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Piper betle, Antihyperglycemic, Antinociceptive, Piperaceae
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Development of Host and Medicinal Plants
Medicinal Plants, Beetle
Leaves of Piper betle were collected from Dhaka district, Bangladesh during January, 2012. The plant was taxonomically identified at the Bangladesh National Herbarium at Dhaka (Voucher specimen No. 37,519). The sliced and air-dried leaves of Piper betle were grounded into a fine powder and 95g of the powder was extracted with methanol (1:5, w/v) for 48 hours. The extract was evaporated to dryness. The final weight of the extract was 6.00g.
Chemicals: Glacial acetic acid was obtained from Sigma Chemicals, USA; aspirin, glibenclamide and glucose were obtained from Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Bangladesh.
Animals: In the present study, Swiss albino mice (male), which weighed between 15-22 g were used. The animals were obtained from International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). All animals were kept under ambient temperature with 12h light followed by a 12h dark cycle. The animals were acclimatized for three days prior to actual experiments. The study was conducted following approval by the Institutional Animal Ethical Committee of University of Development Alternative, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Antihyperglycemic activity: Glucose tolerance property of methanol extract of Piper betle leaves was determined as per the procedure previously described by Joy and Kuttan (1999) with minor modifications. In brief, fasted mice were grouped into six groups of six mice each. The various groups received different treatments like Group 1 received vehicle (1% Tween 80 in water, 10 ml/kg body weight) and served as control, group 2 received standard drug (glibenclamide, 10 mg/kg body weight). Groups 3-6 received methanol extract of Piper betle leaves at doses of 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight. Each mouse was weighed and doses adjusted accordingly prior to administration of vehicle, standard drug, and test samples. All substances were orally administered. Following a period of one hour, all mice were orally administered 2 g glucose/kg of body weight. Blood samples were collected 120 minutes after the glucose administration through puncturing heart. Blood glucose levels were measured by glucose oxidase method (Venkatesh et al., 2004).
Antinociceptive activity: Antinociceptive activity of the methanol extract of Piper betle leaves was examined using previously described procedures (Shanmugasundaram and Venkataraman, 2005). Briefly, mice were divided into seven groups of six mice each. Group 1 served as control and was administered vehicle only. Groups 2 and 3 were orally administered the standard antinociceptive drug aspirin at a dose of 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight, respectively. Groups 4-7 were administered methanolic leaf extract of Piper betle at doses of 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight, respectively. Following a period of 60 minutes after oral administration of standard drug or extract, all mice were intraperitoneally injected with 1% acetic acid at a dose of 10 ml per kg body weight. A period of 5 minutes was given to each animal to ensure bio-availability of acetic acid, following which period, the number of writhings was counted for 10 min.
Statistical analysis: Experimental values are expressed as mean ± SEM. Independent Sample t-test was carried out for statistical comparison. Statistical significance was considered to be indicated by a p value < 0.05 in all cases.
Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(8): 1496-1502, 2012 ISSN 1995-0772
Journal