Studies of Phytochemical Screening, Acute Toxicity and Anti-Diarrhoeal Effect of Aqueous Extract of Kenyan Tithonia diversifolia Leaves in Rats

摘要

Tithonia diversifolia (family-Asteraceae), a wildly growing plant has been reported to possess a number of medicinal properties being used traditionally in tropics especially Kenya and Nigeria. This study evaluated the phytochemicals, acute toxicity (100-10,000 mg/kg) and anti-diarrhoeal effect of Tithonia diversifolia on group of Wistar rats. The anti-diarrhoeal effect of aqueous extract of Tithonia diversifolia leaves (200, 400 and 800 mg/kg doses) was studied using castor-oil-induced-diarrhoea model (dropping test), castor-oil-induced enteropooling (secretory test) and gastrointestinal transit test (charcoal transit) in rats. In castor-oil-induced diarrhoea test, the rats' droppings were observed and noted as wet or dry with wet signifying characteristic diarrhoea. The castor-oil-induced enteropooling was done to determine the volume of intestinal content induced by castor oil while in gastrointestinal transit, the speed and percentage distance travelled by charcoal meal were noted to determine the anti-motility properties of the extract. The results showed that Tithonia diversifolia leaves' aqueous extract reduced wet faecal output in castor-oilinduced diarrhoea but with slightly greater frequencies in comparison with loperamide treated animals and had less volume of intestinal contents as compared with the negative control (distilled water treated animals). It also had a significant (pTithonia diversifolia leaves' aqueous extract has a remarkable anti-diarrhoeal effect in castoroil- induced diarrhoea, enteropooling and gastrointestinal motility models attesting to its utility in a wide range of diarrhoeal states traditionally.