www.ijbcp.com International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | November 2019 | Vol 8 | Issue 11 Page 2506 IJBCP International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Print ISSN: 2319-2003 | Online ISSN: 2279-0780 Original Research Article Evaluation of anxiolytic properties of BacoMind extract of plant Bacopa monnieri Linn. in comparison with diazepam in rodent model Rajni Rathore 1 , Tarun Arora 2 *, Rashmi Karabasappa Mamadi 3 INTRODUCTION Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components, associated with significant disability (including educational and occupational) which has a negative impact on the quality of life. 1 Anxiety neurosis was reported to be prevalent in 16.5 per thousand individuals, with a marginally higher prevalence in urban settings than in rural settings (106:100). 2 Anxiety has become a significant area of psychopharmacological research during this decade, as its current prevalence estimates across 44 countries ranged between 0.9% and 28.3%, with the global prevalence calculated to be 7.3%. 3 ABSTRACT Background: Anxiety is a state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components, associated with significant disability. The pharmacotherapy for anxiety remains limited for achievable safety and tolerability of the medicines. Benzodiazepines use associated with side effects like psychomotor impairment and addiction liability. Due to the ADRs associated with antianxiety drugs, the drug trials have focused on screening herbal medicines that are reportedly used in the treatment of anxiety and which have minimal side effects. Methods: The anxiolytic activity was examined by using the elevated plus maze (EPM) and open field test (OFT), forty Albino wistar strain rats of both sex of weighing 120 to 200 g were divided into four groups of ten rats each.. Group 1 received vehicle (normal saline); group 2 received diazepam (1 mg/kg); groups 3 and 4 received BacoMind™, 30 and 60 mg/kg oral, respectively. Results: Rats treated with diazepam (1 mg/kg, p.o.) showed significant (p<0.001) increase in the percentage of open arms entries and time spent whereas, in closed arm the number of entries and time spent were significantly (p<0.05) decreased. Intraperitonial administration of BacoMind™ extract of plant Bacopa monnieri Linn. exhibited significant (p<0.05) increase in the number of open arm entries and time spent with significant (p<0.05) reduction in number of entries and time spent in the closed arm as compared to group 1. BacoMind™ treated rats also produced significant increase in the number of rearings (p<0.05), assisted rearings and number of squares crossed (p<0.01). Conclusions: BacoMind™ extract of plant Bacopa monnieri Linn possess significant anxiolytic activity in the rats. It can be a promising anxiolytic agent. Keywords: Anxiolytic, Diazepam, Elevated plus maze, Open field test, BacoMind™ DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20194793 1 Department of Pharmacology, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, New Delhi, India 2 Department of Pharmacology, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India 3 Department of Pharmacology, St. John’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Received: 06 September 2019 Accepted: 05 October 2019 *Correspondence to: Dr. Tarun Arora, Email: doctortarunarora@ gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.