Effect of Scent Leaf (Ocimum gratissimum) Aqueous Extract on Neuromuscular Functions of Albino Rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Abstract

Ocimum gratissimum (O.G.) (scent leaf) has been used for the treatment of various disease situations from ancient time because of its anti-convulsion, anti-diabetic anti septic, antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant properties. In the present study, the effects of O.G extract preparation was evaluated on the neuromuscular system of the albino Wister rat (Rattus norvegicus). Twenty five young animals of 40-90g were used for the experiment. They were divided into five groups of five animals per group. The different groups (groups 2, 3, 4, and 5) were administered with 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg, and 800mg/kg daily, respectively while group 1 was used as the control. The neuromuscular activities were assessed and studied by using scientific assays like the handgrip test, inverted screen test, swimming test, and the beam walking for checking non-declarative memory function. From the result obtained , One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the mean values among the different groups. Differences were considered significant whenever the p-value was P ≤ 0.05. From the different results evaluated it was observed that in handgrip test, groups 2, 3 and 5 with hanging time of 11.7±1.18, 13.55±1.37 and 11.5±0.52 respectively were significantly different ≤ 0.05 from the control with 6.6±1.13 second hanging time. Beam walking had a dose dependent slowness in walking across the beam among the treated groups as compared with the control. Inverted screen test has group 3 with the highest performance time of 20.55±8.42 which was significantly higher than the control with 8.4±1.98 seconds This result reveals that the administration of O.G. have significant effect on the cognitive, coordination and neuromuscular functions of the albino rats. It also shows a window of effectiveness of the extract on neuromuscular activities.