2008 Kyung Hee University Press 73 Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine 2008 8(1), 73-80 www.opem.org OPEM Evaluation of antipsychotic and anti-diarrhoeal activities of ethanolic extract of roots of Rubia cordifolia Linn Minal T Harde, Avinash S Khairnar, Ameya S Kasture and Sanjay B Kasture* NDMVP Samaj’S College of Pharmacy, Nashik 422 002, 1- AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Pune, India SUMMARY The objective of the present study was to assess the antipsychotic and antidiarrhoeal activities of ethanolic extract of roots of Rubia cordifolia in mice and rats. The antipsychotic activity of ethanolic extract of roots of Rubia cordifolia (ERC) was evaluated by observing its effect on amphetamine- induced stereotyped behavior in mice. Effect of ERC was also studied on motor coordination and locomotion in mice. The antidiarrhoeal activity was evaluated using castor oil-induced diarrhoea and excretion of sodium and potassium ions in the intestinal secretion in rats and gastrointestinal transit in mice. The ERC inhibited amphetamine-induced stereotyped behaviour, diminished locomotion and impaired motor coordination. ERC inhibited castor oil-induced diarrhoea, decreased both sodium and potassium excretion in the intestine and decreased gastrointestinal transit. Thus the present study confirms the anti-diarrhoeal activity of Rubia cordifolia. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the potential of Rubia cordifolia as an antipsychotic. Key words: Rubia cordifolia roots extract; Antipsychotic; Antidiarrhoeal INTRODUCTION Rubia cordifolia Linn (Rubiaceae) known as Manjista or Indian Madder is a climber growing in northwest Himalayas, Nilgiris, and other hilly districts of India. It is commonly used in the Indian system of Medicine for treatment of obstructions in the urinary tract, and as astringent, and diuretic. It is also useful in external inflammation, ulcers, diarrhoea, and certain skin diseases (Nadkarni, 1982). Roots of Rubia cordifolia contain anthraquinones (Wang et al. , 1992), lucidin having mutagentic activity (Poginsky et al. , 1983), and napthahydroquinones dimer (Itokawa et al., 1989; Itokawa and Ibraheim, 1993) having cytotoxic activity. Previous studies have reported anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, hypoglycemic, antistress, anxiolytic, and nootropic activities (Kasture et al. , 2001, 2002; Kasture and Kasture, 2004). The ethyl acetate fraction of ethanolic extract of roots of Rubia cordifolia (ERC) has anti-oxidant and lipoxygenase-inhibiting activity (Tripathi and Sharma, 1995). The methanolic extract of Rubia cordifolia has anticancer (Advankar and Chitnis, 1982) and antiviral activity against Herpes viruses (Jin et al. , 1989). The alcoholic extract also has immunomodulatory activity (Joharapurkar et al., 2003). Rubia cordifolia contains anthraquinones. Though the anthraquinones are commonly known to cause diarrhoea (as in case of Senna leaves and Cascara bark), Rubia cordifolia is used in folklore medicine as an antidycentric. During our previous studies (Kasture et al., 2002; Kasture and Kasture, 2004) we noticed a central nervous system depressant effect of ERC. It is known that antipsychotics cause *Correspondence: Sanjay B Kasture, NDMVP Samaj’S College of Pharmacy, Nashik 422 002, 1- AISSMS College of Pharmacy, Pune, India. E-mail: kasturesb@mailcity.com DOI 10.3742/OPEM.2008.8.1.073