2008 Kyung Hee University Press 130 Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine 2008 8(2), 130-134 www.opem.org OPEM Evaluation of antidiarrhoeal activity of Cardamom ( Elettaria cardamomum) on mice models Tasmina Rahman 1 , Khandaker Ashfaqur Rahman 1 , Sultana Rajia 1, * , Mahiuddin Alamgir 2,4 , Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan 3 and M Shahabuddin Kabir Choudhuri 1 1 Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh; 2 Pharmacy Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh; 3 Department of Pharmacy, University of Science and Technology, Chittagong, Bangladesh; 4 School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW-2052, Australia Received for publication June 05, 2007; accepted February 25, 2008 SUMMARY Diarrhoea is a major health care problem in developing countries. Elettaria cardamomum Maton fruits, commonly known as cardamom are widely used for flavoring purposes in food. In this study we evaluated the antidiarrhoeal activity of hot water extract of cardamom against experimental diarrhoeal models on mice. Cardamom extract showed significant antidiarrhoeal activity against castor oil and magnesium sulphate induced models. Whereas, the gastrointestinal motility was slightly increased. Key words: Antidiarrhoeal; Cardamom; Elettaria cardamomu; Gastrointestinal INTRODUCTION In developing countries diarrhoea is a major public health problem and therefore it is important and useful to identify plants with antidiarrhoeal activity. Diarrhoea ranks second to respiratory diseases as the cause of non-surgical paediatric admission and causes one fourth of the avoidable deaths in hospitalized children. It is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in all age groups, particularly in infants and children under the age of three. The incidence of diarrhoeal diseases still remains high despite the efforts of any governments and international organizations (e.g. WHO) to curb it (Agbor et al., 2004). Cardamom, the fruits of Elettaria cardamomum Maton. (Zingiberaceae), are widely used for flavoring purposes in food and as carminative. In Unani system of medicine it is used to treat gastrointestinal disorders (Jamal et al. , 2006). Despite its wide uses little information has been reported on their pharmacological properties, which showed antioxidant (Hinneburg et al., 2006; Vasavada et al.., 2006) and anti-inflammatory activity (Al-Zuhair et al. ., 1996). Antimicrobial activity of cardamom was attributed to its essential oil (Ramadan et al. ., 1994; Garg and Jain, 2001). Recently, cardamom showed gastroprotective effects against aspirin and ethanol induced lesions in rats (Jamal et al., 2006). The seeds also showed activity against Helicobacter pylori (Nostro et al. ., 2005). Cardamom is usually added to the food preparations *Correspondence: Sultana Rajia, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW-2052, Australia. E- mail: pharm_rajia@yahoo.com DOI 10.3742/OPEM.2008.8.2.130