Central Nervous System Depressant Effects of the Methanolic Leaves Extracts of Tabernaemontana divaricata

Tabernaemontana divaricata belongs to the family of Apocynaceae, found in Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America and a wide assortment of oceanic islands. Experimentally, T. divaricata are shown to possess reversible acethylcholinesterase inhibitory effect/roots part[7], anti fertility Activity/leaves[8],antioxidant and anti-Inflammatory/ flowers part [9,10,11], gastroprotective/ flowers[12], antidiabetic and cytotoxic/flowers[13,14], antinociceptive /leaves[15], anticonvulsant/ flowers [16] ,antibacterial [17], antiulcerogenic / flowers part [11], anthelmintic / leaves part. [18], anti-Obesity / leaves part [19], aemostatic potential/Latex Proteases [20], anticancer/flowers [21], Abstract: Tabernaemontana divaricata (TD) (family: Apocynaceae) has remarkable medicinal value.Traditionally the plant is used as an emmenagogue, aphrodisiac, tonic, purgative, tonic to the brain, the liver and spleen.Considering the important activities reported in traditional uses, aim of the present study was to assess the effect of methanolic extract of TD leaves on the central nervous system (CNS) in mice.The CNS depressant activity was assessed by open field and hole cross test while anti-depressant activity was evaluated by tail suspension and force swimming test.Two dose 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight were used for this purpose.A statically significantly decreases in locomotor activity at dose of 200 and 400 mg/kg was observed.The extracts, at the dose of 400 mg/kg body weight, were shown to have better effect than 200 mg/kg.The results demonstrated that, the extract of TD leaves had the potential phytomedicine value for its significant CNS depressant properties.