Leaves from several Passiflora species are largely employed in the Brazilian folk medicine as anxiolytic and sedative. In this work the anxiolytic, sedative-like properties and liquid chromatography analysis of methanolic extract of Passiflora actinia were evaluated. The methanol extract and all of its fractions presented significant sedative-like effect in elevated plus-maze and open field tests. Only the aqueous fraction of the methanol extract showed selective anxiolytic activity (30 mg/kg). Chromatographic analysis of the active fractions showed the presence of isovitexin and absence of the classical Passiflora beta-carboline alkaloids or flavonoids such as vitexin, rutin, swertisin, hesperidin and orientin. The tincture obtained from P. actinia leaves presented 0.27 mg/ml of isovitexin and absence of vitexin.
Anxiolytic; sedative; isovitexin; Passiflora actinia; Passifloraceae
