Context: Ardisia elliptica Thunb Lam. (Myrsinaceae) is widely used traditionally in the treatment of diarrhea related health disorders in Bangladesh.
Objective: The crude ethanol extract of Ardisia elliptica fruits (EFA) was evaluated for its antioxidant and antidiarrhoeal activities.
Materials and methods: DPPH radical scavenging, nitric oxide scavenging, reducing power and Fe(++) ion chelating ability were used for determining antioxidant activities and animal models were used for antidiarrheal activities such as the castor oil and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhea, enteropooling induced by the administration of castor oil and magnesium sulfate at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg.
Results: The extract possessed a significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 30.75 μg/ml compared to ascorbic acid (IC50: 7.89 μg/ml). The IC50 values of the extract and ascorbic acid were 51.72 and 38.68 μg/ml, respectively, in nitric oxide scavenging assay. The IC50 value of the extract for Fe(++) ion chelating ability (41.30 μg/ml) was also found to be significant compared to the IC50 value of EDTA (22.57 μg/ml). The EFA also showed a significant protection (p < 0.001) against experimentally induced diarrhea by castor oil and magnesium sulfate as evidenced by a decrease in the number of defecation with respect to control. The diarrhea induced by castor oil and magnesium sulfate enteropooling was prevented by all the tested doses.
Conclusion: Therefore, the obtained results confirm the antioxidant and antidiarrheal activity of EFA and thus support the traditional uses of this plant as a modality for antioxidant and antidiarrheal activity.