Tephrosia purpurea (L.) Pers., Fabaceae, is claimed to be of use in the control and treatment of a variety of epileptic disorders in Indian system of medicine. The present study plans to systematically evaluate T. purpurea and to verify this claim. Status epilepticus was induced in male albino rats of Wistar strain by administration of pilocarpine (30 mg/kg, i.p.) 24 h after lithium chloride (3 mEq/kg, i.p.). Different doses of the extract of T. purpurea were administered orally one hour before the injection of pilocarpine. The severity of status epilepticus was observed and recorded every 15 min till 90 min and thereafter every 30 min till 180 min, using the scoring system. The in vivo lipid peroxidation of rat brain tissue was measured. The in vitro NO free radical scavenging activity of plant extract was assessed. The interaction between plant extract and 2-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) was also observed for in vitro free radical scavenging activity. The severity of status epilepticus was reduced with the administration of ethanolic extract of T. purpurea. Ethanolic extract of the plant exhibited both in vivo and in vitro antioxidant activity. The ethanolic extract of T. purpurea was found to be useful to control lithium-pilocarpine induced status epilepticus in albino rats of Wistar strain.
Free radical scavenging; MDA; antioxidant; lipid peroxidation; antiepileptic activity, flavonols
